Time Stands Still
by azaadin
Summary: Two fanfiction authors find themselves living the same nightmare as their characters. What will they do to find a way home against a Doctor who is determined to keep them with him forever?
1. The Rabbit Hole

**Chapter 1: The Rabbit Hole**

 **AUTHORS' NOTE:**

 **Yes, I know I put the apostrophe after the 's' in 'authors'. That's because this story is cowritten by emptyvoices and myself. This is another 'Fanfiction authors fall into the whoniverse' story. All personal details have been changed, but we've tried to stay as true to ourselves as possible. It's not specifically tied to any other stories, but as other works are referred to, it might do you well to read those others as well. We hope you enjoy!**

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Time stands still. At least for a little while. Cancer seems a tremendous word, especially that in the brain. In one foul swoop, it strikes a person of common reason. Makes them befuddled as they sit there attempting to contrive your name. Sometimes, the name of the nurse reaches Cathryn's father's before hers even crossed his lips. Too many syllables. Was she so selfish? Each day visiting? The lingering hospital smell. She couldn't even tell what clothes she put on each day. She ran errands. Had to teach her mother to pump gas into her own gar, check fluids, the oil. Things were still missing. Grief saps a person as readily as any amount of fatigue.

But it was on the Mother's Day, she was driving to the hospital, balancing two lunches neither one of them would be able to eat. True, Cathryn kept a standard of eating one meal a day but even there she was faltering. It took so much strength to put food in her mouth. Hardly seeming worth the effort this time.

Walking into the courtyard just outside the building, she sat down on the grass, leaning against a tree and rested her purse in her lap. She was mentally drained, utterly taxed so found herself yielding to sleep as a respite from the nightmare occurring all around her.

It didn't occur to her that she would wake up in another. Sharp blades of grass. She felt sun permeate on her face. Had she fallen asleep at the park? Outside the hospital? That was generally such a bad idea. All one's possessions were apt to get stolen that way. It was a bit of a miracle she still had them entirely in her control. The sun was shining directly in front of her but she was just underneath a shadow. What was it? She squinted only to look incredulously at the phone booth looming over here. _That looks like the….._ She shook her head frantically. It couldn't be.

Two voices seemed to resonate towards her.

"Right, yes, sorry. I didn't get a chance to ask. You haven't?" It was a distinctly familiar male voice. "There hasn't been anyone? You know…?" His voice trailed in suggestion.

Cathryn started to gasp in panic. She was frozen, incapable of moving. The two were just directly in front of her. She knew them, she….

"Well, there was this one guy." The brunette spoke in front of her. _Sarah Jane._ Cathryn recognized her. None of this could be real. "I travelled with him for a while, but he was a tough act to follow." She paused. "Goodbye Doctor."

"Oh, it's not goodbye," he corrected.

 _Doctor._ Panic stifling her chest, Cathryn pushed herself to her feet, her purse with all its contents falling from her chest. She must have fallen asleep with it on as habit in case of emergencies. Still the ruckus it made…

They both turned to look at her.

"I'm….I'm sorry." She squinted in the bright light. "Must have gotten lost." Or was in a living nightmare. She certainly wasn't home. What was going on?

"Are you alright?" He was scrutinizing her. There was a smell about her that was distinctly familiar.

"Yeah….yes, sure."

He was looking at her strangely. American. Though she could be a tourist or simply visiting the area, he was perplexed. This location wasn't a hotspot for tourism and she was apparently alone. "I'm just…."

"Lost?" He filled in the blanks, running a surreptitious scan of the girl in front of him. Suddenly, he was filled with a sense of impending alarm but nevertheless, he kept his tone even. His distaste for the impending goodbye he had to pay to Sarah Jane, which she seemed to desire, was forgotten.

"Why don't I lend you a hand? I can help you…"

Cathryn's throat stiffened. Distinctly, she heard the voice of another woman. The accent was similar to that of the English but not quite. What made the woman stand out was the way she took her hand and gently began pulling them away from the pair. "Come on, Sweetie. Let the two of them be."

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Bec had stumbled. The world had exploded with light around her, and when it faded the school ground had disappeared and random street had taken its place.

She wandered the streets feeling dazed, when she stumbled on a familiar, impossible, sight. An everyday looking school with delivery trucks parked in front of it. A perfectly ordinary and unassuming scene, except that she'd seen it before... on a fictional show on the telly.

Two familiar faces met each other in the park across from her; the familiar brunette attempting to say goodbye that Bec knew all too well. The dialogue was replaying directly before her.

"No!" she whispered to herself in denial. This wasn't real. She couldn't be here.

She watched the scene begin to play out in front of her, reciting the words to herself as she distantly saw their lips moving, knowing this couldn't be real, when there was a change, and it all went wrong. Another bewildered woman seemingly stepped out of nowhere and stumbled straight into the duo's path.

After a moment of hesitation, Bec rushed forward to pull the woman away. She knew how this scene was supposed to go, and she knew it couldn't be interrupted. She knew nothing she saw was real, and yet she knew it wasn't a dream. Her mind felt too clear and aware for it to be a dream, but whether this was really happening or all in her head, she needed to make sure that everything continued the way it was supposed to. That, and, not only did she need to stop the woman interrupting the conversation between the man and his companion, but the woman looked as lost as she felt. Was it possible they'd fallen into this mad world together?

"Come on, Sweetie," she said to the woman once she reached her side. "Let the two of them be." She gently pulled on the woman's hand to encourage her away, deliberately avoiding looking at the familiar faces before her.

"They're…." Cathryn tried to speak as Bec nodded in agreement.

"I know. I watch _it_ too." She hoped the woman would pick up on the emphasis as the girl looked at her blearily before a sudden alertness came to her expression.

This woman knew what she talking about, Cathryn realised. Knew about her confusion and was aware of the dilemma. Could they be dreaming the same dream or were they…..she shook her head. Her thoughts shifting. They needed to get away from him. She had written and researched enough about the Doctor to know he was very dangerous. If he found out… _found out what?_ She gritted her teeth. _That his life was a TV show? That it…._ it was all so ridiculous. She had written enough of this to know but she nodded.

"Right. Sorry," Cathryn said quickly following the other girl's lead. "Must have been tired and lost track of time." Nothing truer could have ever been said….well, in certain respects.

"Waaait," the Doctor said, stretching the word as the two girls started to walk off. Now he was only doubly alarmed. "How did you two get here? Where are you from?"

Cathryn said nothing as she hurried after the other woman. Maybe he would just disappear. If she or they ran far enough, the dream would dissipate but instead let out a brief gasp as his hand touched her arm.

"Your friend is waiting for you," Bec offered as a means of distraction looking at Sarah Jane. At that moment, the former companion was following directly after the Doctor in curiosity. She was a reporter after all.

"Doctor?" She called out.

Concentration broken momentarily, the Doctor turned to glance back at Sarah Jane. It was all Cathryn needed. She started to run.

Bec hesitated for a moment, until she heard the Doctor give a shout in alarm, then she took off after the other woman.

She knew she wasn't a dream. She knew dreams. In dreams, things didn't happen as history said they did. In dreams a single person could morph between a variety of different characters. In dreams, if you could focus on someone's face or some specific detail it would be blurry and ever changing. This was no dream.

Yet she still hoped that it was.

She sprinted after the retreating woman, but a hand quickly took her by the wrist.

"Just hold it. Just hold on a minute," he said pulling her to a stop.

Bec complied, hoping that if she played along he would lose interest in her as being unremarkable, and also hoping that if she stalled him it would give the other woman more of a chance to flee. She nervously turned towards him, trying to keep her own panic carefully hidden away. She resisted the urge to instinctively look up at his face, remembering all she'd learned about Time Lord hypnosis. "Excuse me?" she asked, looking at his hand on her wrist.

"Sorry, sorry." He let her go and took a step back, but she could still feel his gaze.

"Doctor!" came a voice from just behind him, and the blonde glanced up to see the older brunette joining them.

"Sorry. Yes," he said glancing back briefly. "I'm the Doctor and this is Sarah Jane."

"Rebecca," she supplied politely when he left a pause.

"Nice to meet you Rebecca. And what's your friend's name?"

A small smile played at her lips as she anticipated how her answer would frustrate him. She guessed that he'd hoped that by catching up with her it would give him an advantage in reaching the other woman whom had first drawn his attention. "I don't know. I never met her before."

The Doctor's head shot up and he started scanning the area again.

"If you never met her, what were you doing together?" Sarah Jane asked almost sharply.

"I thought she needed help," she replied with a shrug.

"Right, right. Well, she still might," the Doctor said almost absentmindedly. "So how about you two wait here, and I'll go find her."

"Of course," Sarah-Jane agreed, while Bec simply nodded her head, momentarily pressing her lips together and biting them between her teeth.

He sprinted off again, and Bec hoped the other girl had gotten far enough away.

The two stood together in silence as they watched the Doctor disappear from sight. She didn't know how Sarah Jane felt, but to her the moment was simply awkward. "Is it okay if we walk a bit while we wait?" Bec asked. "It's a bit chilly to just stand around." She was hoping that she might find an opportunity to slip away from the reporter before the Doctor returned, hopefully empty handed.

Sarah Jane offered her a wide generous smile before gesturing back in the direction she'd come from. "Where are you from? I can't quite place your accent."

"Australia," Bec answered with a smile. "Don't worry, no one else can ever pick it either. That and most Australian's don't sound like the fake Aussies on the telly."

The older woman laughed with her before continuing her informal interrogation. "So what brought you to our fair land?"

"I'm trying to work that out myself. It's freezing here." And it was. She was wearing open heeled sandals, jeans and her Superman jacket, but the air still felt uncomfortably nippy. She knew that England had a far cooler climate than she was used to, but knowing and feeling the chill of the air were two different things. Sarah Jane, on the other hand, seemed perfectly comfortable in the bitey breeze.

"I'm sorry. You don't know if there's a loo around here, do you?"

Sarah Jane smiled brilliantly again and linked her arm with the Bec's. "Right this way." Rather than leading her to the dingy public toilets, she took her to a coffee shop across from the park.

"What about your friend?" Bec asked, not really minding moving further from where he expected them to be waiting.

"Oh, don't worry, he always shows up," the woman promised.

Bec laughed, hoping he wouldn't, and gratefully thanked Sarah Jane for her help, but when she went through to the back of the cafe, she stepped through the rear staff exit rather than into the ladies, all the while feeling guilty of her deception. She just hoped that she too would be able to slip away and find her way into anonymity.

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Cathryn felt guilt work its way through her. The other woman didn't make it. She wasn't with her. She didn't even know her name but even in this…..whatever this was, she tried to help. Still Cathryn couldn't give up. She was known to have exceptionally vivid dreams but this…she jogged through an alley making her way into another residential park. There was a circle or grove of trees right in front of her. She couldn't run forever. Even here, she was starting to feel fatigue. A cramp was forming. She might do Pilates at home and run through her university to catch the shuttle. That didn't make her a runner, per se. There was her diet to contend with. In the strain of what happened, she hadn't eaten since…well, she couldn't really remember. She certainly drank a fair amount of instant latte's at the hospital vending machine. The aftertaste was still in her mouth. Briefly, she felt dizzy.

 _Deep breaths._ She was hiding in the grove she found beneath a thick layer of bushes. She just had to make sure if….

A swift intake of air. She saw him appear in front of her in the outskirts of the park. He was scanning the area and looking around. Looking for her. She placed her hand over her mouth, shaking her head, thinking quickly. She used to climb trees with her brother years ago back at home. She also been a few times to a gym that had a climbing wall. It was fun at the time but now….now she was pushed by sheer motivation. Necessity. The tree in the back had lower branches. She was able to push her body onto the limb, testing her weight on the branch before moving upwards to the next one. She wasn't fast but her ascent was steady. She was twenty feet up, hopefully partially hidden by the dense foliage when the Doctor appeared below. She froze in position even trying to still her own breath while he examined the area. She again clasped a scraped hand to her mouth. In dreams the perpetrator always knew where you were. It felt like she was trapped inside a horror movie.

"Noooow where are you?" he said aloud. "I know you're here." He was looking at his sonic as if in confirmation. _A signal?_ Is that what happened? In her nightmare, she made herself a beacon, like Sara?

He heard the faint rustle of leaves overhead that seemed inconsistent with the regular ambient noise and glanced up spotting her just up in the tree line. He gave her a wave as she stifled a horrified cry of surprise, while holding up his hands nonthreateningly. "I'm not going to hurt you."

 _Yeah, heard that before._ Cathryn thought, instantly standing to make further progression upwards.

"Now wait….wait just a moment," he protested. "Hear me out."

"I'm really not interested." A tone of derision. Stubbornness.

"You could be," he never knew what to anticipate from humans. This one was no exception. "I think you're lost. You're from nowhere near around here, are you?" She was silent. "I could help you."

She felt a surge of anger go through her. How was he helping? Oh, she knew what he would offer in terms of help. It would be the last thing she needed.

"You know what I think?" She posed quietly as he looked at her. Maybe he was starting to make headway. Her voice had taken on a calm tone and-

"That you're full of shit." The same measured voice but a fury had ignited in her eyes. She was angry and adamantly distrustful of him. _Humans._ He shook his head. Pulling out his TARDIS key, he summoned the time machine to just near his location. The hard way it was. It wouldn't be the most delightful task rematerializing around the tree the girl was in but there seemed to be no other choice. It was a good thing that Rebecca agreed to stay and Sarah Jane was watching over her. It would be the last thing he needed if-

"Doctor!" It was Sarah Jane. She was back inside the TARDIS. When she had lost sight of Bec, she returned there, not knowing the Doctor's present location. She knew he would return and it would be the most expeditious way of telling him. Of course, she didn't expect that he would summon the TARDIS to his position but that was the Doctor. Expect the unexpected. She had been with him for long enough to know that. Her travels with the third and forth regeneration had given her sufficient enough expertise. Seeing his new face had been a startling experience for her. After all this time…. _more then twenty years._ Her memories were starting to flood back. In one sense it was invigorating but Sarah Jane knew she needed closure. That she would achieve a goodbye out of that man, for herself more then anything else. But she focused on the task present at hand. "Rebecca. She's gone." She shook her head. "I thought she was fine but…." Her instincts must have been rusty. Or after getting K-9 back, she was too contented to think about what she committed to do. She hadn't read Rebecca very well at all and the girl gave her the slip at the very first moment. "I'm sorry."

The Doctor simply clenched his jaw. If it wasn't one thing, it was another. Still, there was the girl to contend with in the tree. "It's alright…." he muttered. "Humans. So unpredictable."

"I suppose we are," Sarah Jane said, thinking of Rose who was still in the console room. "But you pick up an awful lot of them." She paused. "Is the other one here?" She glanced around the area.

"Ohhh, of course she is." The Doctor gestured at the tree he had seen her in. "Right up there."

Sarah Jane raised her eyebrows, releasing a smile. She might have laughed had she not seen the Doctor's frustration at the moment. "At least she's determined."

The Doctor only sighed, turning to enter the TARDIS. He had a delicate task ahead of him.

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It was in those moments following Cathryn's remark that he almost seemed to have given up on his quarry. She heard his voice talking to his companion but couldn't quite grasp the words with the wind in her ears. Maybe this was a victory. Perhaps in her discussions with other authors, all this time, she had been wrong about what he would do with someone taken out of their reality and set into his. _Maybe I just am dreaming this option because I prefer it._ Perhaps that is what it was. In lucid dreaming, once someone fully became aware of the dream, they could grasp control of the dream world. Manipulate it to their standard. She couldn't make the Doctor disappear or wake up just yet but he had turned around and left. She took a deep breath. Maybe getting herself to wake up or alter other aspects would come next…

Suddenly, she gasped when she heard a familiar grinding sound. One she only heard on the show. It seemed to echo all around her. She was starting to see the outline of walls beginning to form….

 _No!_ Immediately, she relinquished her grasp on the branch and made the jump down. A longer jump then she was ever used to. Letting out a cry of pain as her ankle twisted on the ground, she stumbled hurriedly as best she could out of the tree line. She knew what he was attempting to do, having written something like it once before. Should have known he would attempt it but….tears were in her eyes. How could this….any of this be a dream? Sure, she felt some degree of pain but not like this…..her ankle was surely sprained if not worse….she made it to the sidewalk before crashing headlong into someone. Cathryn started to panic feeling only a faint grasp on her shoulders.

"It's alright! It's just me. We met before. Remember?"

It was the other woman. The one she abandoned. At this moment, now a source of hope.

After shaking Sarah Jane, Bec had considered heading deeper into the city, taking the most expedient straight line away from where she had seen the impossible man and his TARDIS, but her thoughts had kept returning to the other woman the Doctor had chased after. She wasn't supposed to be in this episode, neither of them were, and if the world was as real as it seemed to be, then could she really walk away without learning first if the woman escaped safely? After much inner debating, Bec circled back through the streets until she came at the park again from a new direction. She shuffled nervously for a moment, wondering if she was simply tempting fate. Perhaps the girl had already fled the park, or perhaps she had already been caught. In either scenario, there was nothing more Bec could do, without risking herself, even though she secretly hoped she had gone relatively unnoticed compared to the other woman. Just as she was about to turn back into the city, though, she recognized the girl again, limping heavily as she fled from a copse of trees. She raced up to her, determined that this time they would _both_ escape to safety.

"We have to g-go." Cathryn's voice came out as a near stutter. The pain was throwing her off guard. "The Doctor, he's back there. He tried to…..the TARDIS….I was in a tree and he tried to…."

Distantly a voice behind them. "You two! Just wait!"

For that, Cathryn refused. She only hoped the other woman would join her. "Please, I'm sorry about before," she said to her with insistence. "My name is Cathryn. I need your help."

Bec's mind immediately flung to her friend in California, another Cathryn from America with whom they'd shared their stories and faith after meeting on fanfiction. She pushed the memory from her mind however, needing to concentrate fully on the moment. Time was fleeting. She had to make a decision.

"Come on." Bec held her around Cathryn's waist and encouraged her to put her arm over her shoulder. Together, they began limping in the opposite direction from the Time Lord. Bec knew they couldn't run, not like this, but if they made it to the road they might be able to catch a taxi or something.

"This can't be real," Cathryn was muttering, as though trying to convince herself as much as Bec. "I used to write this. It wasn't real."

"Cathryn?" The woman's voice repeated in astonishment, pausing their stumbling gait momentarily. Her eyes widened in seeming recognition.

 _It couldn't be…_ Bec thought to herself. She'd read stories, a few of them written by her friend Cathryn, where two whovians whom had never met but knew each other fell into the universe together, but, even if it were possible, which Bec was still inclined to dispute, the chance that they would randomly fall together into this preposterous world was so remote that it was hardly worth considering. However, now the idea had firmly taken hold, Bec had to follow it up, just in case.

"Not Cathryn _Stuart_?"

Cathryn frowned at the other woman. _How could she know that?_ she wondered. "Yeees," she answered slowly.

"Not the 'Sara Thomas', _Lost in Time_ , Cathryn Stuart?" Bec pressed, both hoping this woman was and wasn't her friend.

Cathryn gasped. "How did you know that?" she asked in surprise.

"Rebecca Edwards. Shae," she told the woman, as she began looking ahead and pulling her friend along a little faster again.

Cathryn gasped. "Bec?"

"Yep, that's me," she confirmed. Normally she'd feel amused at herself, quoting the show in everyday conversation, but this time..? "Remember, don't say anything. We'll just be uninteresting. Maybe he'll leave."

"He found me with the sonic," Cathryn corrected her.

" _Bother_!"

They reached the road, but so did he. "Would you two just stop and listen to me!"

"She got hurt because of you," Bec accused him in her strongest 'angry Mummy' voice. "No wonder she ran away. Just leave us alone or we'll call the police." She knew the police couldn't help, not really, but not only did she hope to sound perfectly ordinary, but, if it came down to it, she hoped the police would cause enough of a hindrance for them to slip away.

Cathryn desperately examined her immediate environment. He nearly had them cornered against a wall. The idea of police didn't seem to faze him. Subtly, she felt for her car keys in her purse, looking for the familiar metal canister.

"I know," the Doctor said, glancing down at Cathryn's ankle. "I'm sorry about that. Maybe came on a bit fast. I do things without thinking. A bit thick sometimes. But right now, I honestly just want to help."

"You do?" Cathryn said, keeping her tone low. A hint of curiosity. This might be their only way.

"Definitely," the Doctor said. "There's a place we can go. The three of us can talk. I can try to figure out just what is going on."

Cathryn knew he was talking about the TARDIS but she wouldn't admit that knowledge. She had to be careful. Didn't Bec as well as herself know what would happen once he got them inside? But in order for her plan to work, he had to get closer. It was risky. If she could keep him off guard.

"I…" Cathryn paused. "I'm just really tired." True enough. "And confused."

Bec was looking at her. Was her fanfiction friend up to something? A plan in mind? It sounded like she was saying what the Doctor wanted to hear.

"Just come with me." The Doctor's voice was soothing as he addressed them both. "I have a great place where you can just rest. Get a bite to eat…" Things were starting to look favorable again. He just had to appear as nonthreatening as possible. He took a careful step towards the two girls.

"But…." Cathryn allowed tears to form in her eyes. "My ankle. It really hurts. I don't think I can walk."

The Doctor gave her a smile. This was indeed improvement. "I just might be able to help with that." His sonic was capable of healing small wounds and muscle tears. A sprain was simple on the right setting. "May I…?" He gestured to her ankle and Cathryn nodded as he bent down. She closed her eyes feeling his fingers examine the injury. A startled gasp escaped her as she felt a pulse resonate through her foot.

"It's alright." The Doctor assured her. "It feels a bit strange but in two ticks…" He grinned as the work was finished. "There, all done." He started to stand. "That wasn't-"

He suddenly gave a shout of pain. Cathryn, in his moment of distraction, had gotten a hold of the pepper spray on her key chain and sprayed the contents directly in his eyes. Briefly, he fell down to the ground as Cathryn steadily plucked the sonic that had fallen by his side.

"Like I said…." Cathryn started. "Full of shit. We're NOT going with you!" Her ankle healed now, she took hold of Bec's hand, running down the street just as the Doctor's companions came to his side.

Bec was already puffing. Yes, she could run in short bursts, a perk of chasing two little boys around everyday, but she couldn't keep up the sustained effort they needed to escape. "We need to find somewhere crowded," she gasped out. "Then we can always make a scene. Do you know anywhere?" She'd never been to England, but she knew Cathryn had. It was a long shot that she would even recognise where they were enough to find her way, but it was worth a try. Worst come to worst, they could always follow important looking street signs. Those often led to somewhere special and populated.

"Yes, I think..." She seized Bec's hand, pulling her into a small alley recognizing the parallel street across from them. "The Strand," she said with some resolve. "It's a major street. Should be filled with people."

Indeed it was. Tourists passing by. Cathryn recognized the wax museum that was a draw to considerable crowds. Twining's Tea Shoppe. This many people milling about, the Doctor couldn't snatch them without likely causing a riot. It would give them a little leeway. "Money." She said. "We need money." Dollars would be useless. The currency here was pounds. There was a reason she grabbed the sonic. Multiple settings. This could take a while. Heading to the crosswalk, she spoke aloud...mostly to coach herself. "Look both ways." Cars driving down the wrong way of the street. The wrong way for her... she was only used to looking in one direction. In London, she adapted to look in both regardless of the pedestrian light.

They headed to the nearest ATM. Barclays Bank. It would have to do. Discreetly, Cathryn started pressing one button after another hoping they would just get lucky.

"Point and think. That's what Amy always said," Bec suggested. "Not that I remember that from this early." She glanced around nervously, but this was the drawback of a crowded place. While it offered them some degree of protection, he likewise could potentially hide in the crowd to get close.

"Point and think." Cathryn repeated. She was getting frustrated but she took a deep breath to calm herself. Closing her eyes briefly, she cleared her mind. Her hand by instinct landed on a setting at random. She pressed the button. Cathryn heard an exclamation beside her as the machine responded, dispensing a plentiful amount of pounds. Immediately, she grabbed the cash and looked at Bec. "Good advice." She nodded.

"You know we can't run forever, he'll just keep chasing us," Bec commented warily as she continued to scan their surroundings. "How about we grab a cuppa in a busy cafe and be as boring as possible. Maybe he'll leave. If that doesn't work, we can go with the running again."

"Well, there's two Starbucks on every corner." She frowned, shaking her head. "If we really want tea, we have to go to Covent Gardens or Kensington Park with the Orangery. There are pubs but this time of day, they tend to be kind of quiet but surprisingly they offer high tea." It was a strange culture shift. She had expected tea places to be on every corner but that just wasn't the way London was. Starbucks invaded and well... Cathryn rolled her eyes. But Starbucks was common, supported by the frequent tourist and seating was plentiful. "This one will be just as good as any." She pointed to one of the chain stores in front of them. "I'm sorry." She shrugged apologetically to Bec. "Not very British, is it?" She asked as she put forth an order for her customary Chai Tea Latte to the sales person in front of her.

"May I please have a cup of tap water?" Bec requested the barista. "Ah, no, may I have two cups?" She shrugged at the other's quizzical glance. "If I drink anything with flavor or sugar now, I'll probably throw up," she explained. For her, physical exertion, food and drinks made for a very bad combination. If she wanted to keep her stomach where it belonged, less was best.

They took seats at a round table inside the busy cafe, nervously waiting for the inevitable confrontation. "Do you have any idea how we got here?" Bec murmured as she unceasingly watched the entrance to the store.

"You mean if it isn't a dream?" Cathryn asked, sipping her beverage. It was very sweet but she needed the caffeine as a stimulant. The little sugar it offered would keep her blood sugar just where she wanted it to be. "No, I'm sorry. I fell asleep at the park just outside the….." She pressed her lips together as her voice trailed. "I woke up here. I thought..." Her hand trembled. Momentarily she had hoped her nightmare would be ending. Not a new one taking its place. "My father's in the hospital right now. Has cancer and I'm stuck here! My mother..." She shook her head, her throat dry. "She doesn't have anyone." She paused. "I'm sorry. I don't know...I write this stuff. It's fiction. I thought it was." She threw her hands up in the air. "It could be a dimensional crack or the Rift that brought us here. If he can scan for us, at least short range, we have some energy on us. Hopefully just void energy..." She took a breath, sipping her drink in consternation.

"I was at school, picking up Matty." Bec shook her head, setting aside thoughts of her son. "There was a light, but I didn't see where it came from. Sorry." She still couldn't see him, but that didn't mean he wasn't close. She'd never had any sense of tact and she worried about how much he may or may not have heard. After all, out of sight didn't necessarily mean he wasn't nearby and eavesdropping. If they wanted to appear as perfectly ordinary people, who just happened to have reacted badly to a stranger they knew nothing about, best not to talk to each other in detail about matters they probably shouldn't understand. She decided it was safest to avoid any revealing conversation whatsoever and so totally changed the subject. "How's your niece?"

Cathryn actually smiled for the first time it what felt like...she didn't remember. "She's fine. Still in Spain. Speaks almost entirely in Spanish. Half in English, half in Spanish but..." She paused. "I talk to her on Skype." She hesitated. She pulled out her iPhone. The network might not be working but she could still access her pictures. "This is Anna," she said referring to the picture of the little three year old with two barrettes in her brown hair, staring at the camera with a sense of wonder. "She's just about four now."

"Ohhhh, she's beautiful." A familiar voice just behind her. Cathryn let out a gasp and turned. The Doctor had found them.

Bec raised her chin but said nothing, though she did push her second untouched glass of water towards the empty seat at their table in an amicable gesture. Again, she deliberately didn't look at the Time Lord, fearful of being hypnotized into the TARDIS, instead looking around for his companions. Unfortunately, she found them all evenly spaced around the café, guarding each exit, watching them closely. She bit the inside of her lip. She hadn't considered that. Hopefully they would still be able to weasel a way out of this mess.

The Doctor took the proffered seat and drink, leaning back casually as he nursed his glass. "Now," he began agreeably. "Where are you two from?"

Cathryn sighed rubbing her forehead. Still, there were other people milling in and out of the coffee place. _Don't panic_. She told herself. She held onto her drink firmly, glancing first at Sarah Jane and Mickey, both parked near the entrance where the whole wall opened up into the street and then at Rose, near where the restrooms were located. It was no wonder the Doctor fell for her. Rose appeared even more attractive in person then she did on the show. In another place and time, she would have loved to have talked to 'the Doctor's one true love'. Maybe get an autograph...but now was not the time. Rose struck her as an adrenaline junkie living for the thrill of the adventures. Cathryn, in this instance, was not like this companion at all.

"California," Cathryn told him, seeing no point in lying about her hometown. Sometimes blatant honesty set people off guard. "The San Francisco Bay Area. More specifically, I fell asleep at the hospital where my father is staying with a brain tumor." She paused. "Hmm, I think I have pictures of the staples attached to his skull. My brother...he's the photographer. Sent them to me. Want to see?" She shoved her phone directly in front of the Doctor. "Gosh, aren't they beautiful too. Certainly, you must think so."

In this gesture, she wanted to create unease. Even if alien/human culture differences, he had spent enough time to be struck momentarily silent by Cathryn's sudden display.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. No wonder the girl reacted the way she did. No wonder she was so upset. "I'm so-"

"Oh please," Cathryn cut him off. "Wait...let me guess. You're so sorry? Maybe you should have that phrase copyrighted. Sell a bunch of Hallmark giftcards. It's the same, meaningless apology. What are you going to say next? Allons-y?"

"Cathryn," Bec hissed as quietly as possible.

He looked at her with introspection but she dared not meet his eyes. She knew far better then that.

"I just want to talk," he attempted.

"By materializing your TARDIS around me. Strange way of talking." Cathryn replied.

He narrowed his eyes. She already knew the name of his time machine. She had finished a sentence and utilized a word he had started to taken a fancy too. This was already getting more serious then he realised. He reached forward in the effort to take her hand, pretending it was a gesture of comfort. Immediately, she reacted putting them into her lap.

Bec had seen the danger playing out before her eyes but, in the moment Cathryn reacted, she wasn't quite as swift as the Doctor's hand shot up to grab hers. Immediately she gasped. Distantly, she heard Cathryn protest adamantly. "Let her go! Let her go right now!"

Bec couldn't move, feeling a presence just outside her mind, a heavy, ominous something around her like she'd never felt before. She inwardly quailed away from it, but her body didn't move, somehow detached from her thoughts and unable to respond.

Cathryn stood up. If it was a scene he wanted, it was one he would get. She called on a bluff Sara used in one of her stories thinking it the one thing that might extract them from trouble here. "So help me, if you don't get let her go, I'll say your name right here in front of everyone." Cathryn's voice was a hiss. "And believe me, I know what it is."

The weight that fell upon Bec's mind was impossible. She'd never realized how alone she was in her thoughts until this moment when the terrifying presence of another intruded on them. The heavy other surrounded and suffocated her, but she could feel the distinction between them, she could feel that, whatever it was, it wasn't in her head, but it was a near thing. She tried to gather her thoughts, to fight back, to throw off the dizzying weight, but under the unfamiliar (and impossible) pressure of the Doctor's mind, she found it hard to focus, and, compared to him, she had no strength. She could hear Cathryn yelling a great distance away but her words were senseless and indistinct.

 _DON'T RUN! DO WHAT I SAY!_

The voice ripped through her head, echoing loudly as if he'd shouted directly in her ear, and she felt herself acquiescing with a nod. As the pressure suddenly disappeared, her mind felt light headed and airy, almost as though there was nothing to hold it in place anymore, like she might just float away. She glanced up at Cathryn who was on her feet, livid with the alien. She frowned, feeling like she'd missed something important. The Doctor, likewise, frowned slightly at Bec before turning his full attention back to the American.

Cathryn knew something was wrong. Bec was frozen at the table. She had to do...something. In this, it was a long shot. In her stories, it always broke the telepathic link. Quickly, she approached Bec, saying a word directly into the girl's ear. Well, a name...a math formula was more like it. But hopefully it would...

"Say that name over again in your mind." Cathryn advised and after following instructions, Bec was suddenly able to break free. No longer a prisoner at the table. She pushed back from it and stumbled away from him.

"No..." Bec bemoaned as the name cleared her head. She couldn't believe he'd done that too her! She was grateful for Cathryn's actions, but she never wanted to learn his name, especially like this!

"One down." Cathryn told him bluntly. "Want to try for another? Why not the whole cafe?"

He looked at Cathryn recognising how dangerous she was. He needed to act quickly. Before Cathryn could respond, he whipped out his psychic paper. "I regret to inform you that this establishment had been shut down for today by the Health and Safety Department."

People were shocked and irritated. Grumbling they looked at his badge but promptly dispersed the premises.

"Nooow." He exhaled through his nose. "Just the three of us."

"Who are you?" the Oncoming Storm demanded, still primarily glaring at Cathryn.

Bec sidled over to the other girl, reaching out to hold her hand tightly. "Sorry, no one really," she mumbled, still trying to defuse the situation despite knowing it was a wasted effort. "This was all a bit of an accident, really."

"No, no, I don't think so." Bec flinched at his tone. As much as she'd enjoyed the show - and from this moment, her liking of the show was firmly past tense - having the Doctor's wrath focused on her was terrifying. "Because you know my name, and I don't see how that could be an accident."

Bec whispered to the woman beside her. "I'm sorry. You were right. We should have run."

"Doctor?" Rose's voice interrupted. "What do you mean they know your name?"

"I warned you!" Cathryn said, shaking her head. "And what did you do? Try to hijack my friend's mind! We did nothing whatsoever to you to have you chase us down. We're trying to get home and well, where we happen to live, your name is commonplace for anyone who puts forth a few minutes to look it up online!"

Now that fact was a huge concern of the Doctor as he started to get to his feet, advancing on them. He was angry and filled with consternation. Whatever the truth was, he needed to secure them onboard his TARDIS to determine it. "I need you to come with me." He regained a sense of calm but it was an order.

"No…you don't," Cathryn said as she instantly turned around, starting to run with Bec. It was then, quick as lightening, hands seized onto her arms pulling her back as his grip became firm, locking her against his chest.

"Just relax," the Doctor intoned as Cathryn struggled against him, looking at Bec in those pivotal moments.

"Just run! Bec, you have to! Just go!" Cathryn protested, her terror renewed.

Bec considered Cathryn's words, but she couldn't do it. She couldn't, she _wouldn't_ , just abandon her like that. Besides, where could she run?

Her jaw tightened, her face set, and her body clenched, preparing to go on the attack.

"Let her go," she demanded lowly, infusing her voice with as much venom as she could - the effect may have been better if she met his eyes, but that was a risk she was still unwilling to take. Her anger was nothing compared to the Oncoming Storm, but at this point, she didn't care. She quickly prayed for strength and wisdom and that she was as terrifying as she hoped to be in that moment.

Dozens of possibilities ran through her head of ways to escape their predicament, but while they might have worked in fiction, when faced with the reality of the Doctor, each idea fell short. She could threaten Rose, or threaten to tell Rose his name... No, she couldn't bring herself to even threaten the girl, let alone actually harm her. But could she threaten him? She considered it for a moment and decided she could. She thought she could even follow through... Although, she doubted she'd ever win, in no way did that mean she wouldn't fight.

She glanced around her at the nearby tables, looking for some sort of weapon she was willing to use, quickly setting on grabbing half a dozen sachets of sugar and holding the tightly in her fist. She thought of the nerve ganglion that Honor had punched once upon a story, but that vulnerability was inaccessible with the way he was holding Cathryn.

"Just listen to me!" the Doctor's frustrated voice growled, but Bec paid him no mind as she stepped forward and aimed her swing at the point two inches behind his nose, her fist flying for the dead centre of his face.

His reflexes were too fast, catching her wrist in one hand. Bec cried out in surprise as she dropped the sugar but the Time Lord was quick. He held the two of them and, as a touch telepath, he now had physical contact with each girl. A hard coded command that gave them no time for retaliation. _Sleep_. He managed to guide them both gently to the floor but his expression was stern. Unrelenting as he looked at each one.

"Doctor?" Rose asked, looking at the women unconscious on the ground. "You alright?" This was something new and sorely unexpected. He told her that the girls were in trouble. They needed help and were displaced. He spoke of their irrational fear of him. But a lot of what they said...the threat to use his name? _Isn't the Doctor his name?_ Rose wondered. But then, why was the Doctor so disturbed by it? Still, they had looked so scared..."You can help them, yeah?"

The Doctor glanced at his companion and back at the women. It was time to clean up. Get them out of the Starbucks and back onto the TARDIS. They weren't safe, the universe wasn't safe until they were safely secured onboard.

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"Thank you," the Doctor said quietly, feeling a bit grim as to what he was forced to do and now he had to take custody over two very reluctant charges. But the universe was at stake and they needed protection whether they agreed to it or not. He needed to find out who they were, what they were, what they knew. Because he was positive those little snippets of information he'd heard were barely scratching the surface. He needed to learn how much they knew and how they had gained their knowledge. He couldn't leave that information accessible to anyone, the damage it could cause…

"How are they?" Sarah Jane inquired, feeling more than a little concerned. She was one of the Doctor's longest companions however, she had not ever seen him imprison anyone onboard the TARDIS. But then, she knew the Doctor would never do anything on a whim and if it weren't absolutely necessary. She remembered him talking about his companions from his first regeneration and how he had to hold them inside the immense time machine. Still, it was only temporary and once he knew they could be trusted to keep what they had seen in confidence, he eventually offered their release. But by that time, they acclimated as passengers and didn't want to go. _Maybe the girls will feel the same way._ Her reporter instincts that she nurtured somehow seemed to state it wouldn't be that simple.

"The TARDIS picked out two rooms and they're just asleep," he answered. "She'll inform me when they are awake." He didn't anticipate that conversation with Bec and Cathryn at all.

"Doctor, this is going to be hard on them." The brunette glanced at the TARDIS. "They'll consider it kidnapping."

"I know." The Time Lord frowned. "Believe me, Sarah Jane, if I thought for a moment there was another solution, I would have used it."

"Alright, then." The reporter paused. "Promise me if you happen to find an alternative, you won't keep them on the TARDIS against their wishes. Free will is very important to us little humans." She had grown more determined since she last travelled with the Doctor in his seventh regeneration. Usually their relationship was him giving orders and she obeying them. But when he left her back on Earth and had been deserted, time eventually sharpened her and she wasn't so intimidated as she had been previously.

"You have my word," the Doctor said solemnly before glancing back at the blue police box while inhaling through his nose. "Weeell, I should be off about now. I'll see you again when-"

"No." Sarah Jane's voice was adamant. "You hate goodbyes but after all the time we spent together, I think I deserve it."

He sighed, looked pained. "You're sure?"

"Yes. Never said it the last time but we will now." She took a step forward, looking at his newly regenerated face. "Goodbye Doctor and good luck."

A momentary pause before he finally answered her. "Goodbye….Sarah Jane." Whew. He actually said the words, painful as they were. Suddenly, he swept her into his arms with a tight embrace. "Thank you," he repeated. "For being there with me."

"I should be the one thanking you and there's not a single moment or adventure I regret." Her arms tightened around him briefly. "There never will be."

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Bec woke up groggily, her eyes slowly drifting around her room. Something felt off, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She rolled over, glancing at the clock, and her heart stumbled in its steady path. 4:33!

'No, no, no, No, _NO_!' she internally screamed at herself. She'd forgotten _Matty_! Was he still waiting at school? Or had the office run her brother, the emergency contact, to pick him up? And about Micah? She should be arriving at daycare right now!

She fumbled with her pocket, shakily pulling out her phone. No network coverage. _Of course_ the phones wouldn't be working when she desperately needed them to be!

She leapt from her bed ( _Where were her shoes_? She always left her sandals at the foot of her bed! No matter, she'd just have to borrow her husband's from the shoe box by the front door) and she raced through the doorway -

She froze instantly in the unfamiliar hall. She simply stared at the long metallic corridor and her memory slowly yielded the details of the last hour before she slept. Was it really that quick? Barely an hour in the Whoniverse and she was already trapped on the TARDIS. She thought of the chase her characters always put the Doctor through and felt woefully naive.

What should she do now? She considered marching back into her room and ignoring anything to do with him, but surely Cathryn was somewhere here too. She set her jaw and marched barefoot down the hallway, certain that he would have configured the TARDIS to lead to him. Finding him was the fastest way to find Cathryn, and the other girl was the only one she cared about helping at this point. She set aside thoughts of her boys; she was the one in danger, they might be sad when she didn't arrive to pick them up, but they were perfectly safe.

Eventually her footsteps lead her to the console room, where he stood watching the doorway as she walked through it. _Of course_ , she thought. _Even barefoot, he probably heard me a mile away._ She crossed her arms over her chest as she returned his glare.

"I think it's time we talked, don't you?" he asked coolly.

xxxxxxxxxx

 **AUTHORS' NOTE:**

 **We would like to offer a special thanks to Almadynis Rayne, Fan Fictional Authoress and LovelyAmberLight for their insights, technical help and contributions to this story. We greatly appreciate your help.**

 **And please review to tell us whether we're hitting or missing the mark. We'd love to hear from you!**


	2. Flight of Desperation

**Chapter 2: Flight of Desperation**

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Cathryn woke up, finding herself back in her room. The familiar bedspread, her curtains...the window that displayed the neighbor's house directly in front of the street. Slowly, she pushed herself up in bed, grabbing hold of the bottle of water she left on the nightstand. _Just a dream. Just one crazy, realistic feeling dream_ , she thought. Immediately, she grabbed hold of her iPad, next to her on the bed and frowned. The wireless was down. That meant she needed to restart the modem. Her father wasn't there to do it but her friend had showed her how to disconnect the modem and router long ago.

"Great. Just one more thing." She wondered whether her mother had already left to go to the hospital to visit her father or whether...she frowned at the clock. 4:45 in the afternoon? She had actually fallen asleep during the day? "Crap," she muttered. Visiting hours were almost over in that department, ending at seven. She needed to get to the hospital right now. Quickly, she changed out of her customary nightgown into her jeans and three layers of sweaters. Despite it being nearly summer, Cathryn was constantly cold. The doctor at school warned her about her pulse rate and blood sugar levels. The pharmacy there had given her these disgusting nutrition bars. She ate half of one before she threw out the rest of the contents. What had she done to deserve that type of punishment?

Anxiety overwhelmed her and she checked her bureau drawer for her Xanax medication only to find it gone, along with the rest of her prescriptions. Did her mother move things around in her distraction? It wasn't exactly par for the course that she would touch Cathryn's meds but, circumstances hadn't been normal lately.

Getting into her shoes, she pushed the door open, starting to call out, "Mom?" but the words died in her throat. This wasn't her hallway. It was... "No," Cathryn said in panic. "Oh, please no." The TARDIS hallway. Orange hues, her heart started to race as she ran down the hallway, hoping to find an exit barely hearing the voice of the Doctor saying, "I think it's time we talked, don't you?" Addressing someone else. _Bec,_ Cathryn thought.

She didn't hesitate, storming directly inside. "What the hell have you done?" Cathryn demanded.

He turned to see his newest passenger arrive in the console room. Lifting his chin slightly, he folded his arms across his chest, tapping his retrieved sonic against his arm lightly. "What I said before. Trying to help you."

"This..." Cathryn gasped as her throat squeezed in panic. "This isn't helping!" She looked around the console room frantically. "Where is my medication? They were in my purse and-"

"Taking an active appetite suppressant when you haven't been eating along with lorazepam and zolpidem are contraindicated-"

"My doctor prescribed all of those to me. He said they weren't." She shook her head frantically. "You don't understand. I need that medication... my father!" She protested. "I need to get home." In that moment, her anxiety and dread reached a terrifying degree, she wasn't seeing straight.

She ran straight for the door, not hearing Bec cry out they were in the Vortex. She had already pulled the door open and was eager to end this nightmare one way or another. Surely the delusion wouldn't keep and every time Cathryn fell in a dream, it would prompt her back to consciousness. She just knew she couldn't stay here.

Bec raced after her friend, seeing the state she was in, but the Doctor got there first, wrapping one arm around her waist and pulling her back while slamming the door shut with his free hand. He didn't even respond to her cries, apart from grimacing at her flailing limbs, as he dragged her back across the room. He didn't release her until he'd flicked those two little switches that Bec remembered seeing another man press on the show, didn't release her until he was sure she was safe from fleeing to her death out the TARDIS doors.

"Right! We need a few ground rules," the Doctor told them loudly. "No touching the doors. No touching the console. In fact, no coming in the console room unless I'm here."

Bec turned her back on the man, completely ignoring him. Not only did she want nothing to do with him, but she was far more concerned with the wellbeing of her friend, especially given her traumatized state. "Cathryn, it's okay. We'll be alright, yeah?" She wanted to assure the other that they'd get out of there and find a way home, but she knew she couldn't promise that, and didn't want the Doctor to hear what assurances she might have given. But what could she say? What comfort could she possibly offer after being chased and trapped and taken against their will?

"We just want to go home," Cathryn bemoaned. The circumstances of the situation were not dispersing. "My father...please, he's in the hospital. My mother is all alone. I can't leave her alone...not after..."

Her breathing quickened as the Doctor crouched down directly in front of her. Gently he took her hands, using her wrists as a telepathic point of contact. " _It's going to be fine, Cathryn_ ," he intoned vocally with the words sounding softly inside her mind. " _Just calm down and you'll be fine_." He felt her overwhelming panic, the dread, guilt and anxiety. Everything those medications he stripped from her so successfully numbed. Still, he knew the potential side effects better than anyone.

"Doctor," Rose started quietly having entered the room. "The pills. Maybe you should return them. Cathryn seems to need then and they're prescribed, yeah? So-"

"I can't." He shook his head. "It could be dangerous and I'm not taking the risk."

"But," Rose insisted. "Shouldn't that be their risk to take? How they help themselves?"

"Rose," he said quietly. "I am helping them as the Doctor. That doesn't mean I can turn a blind eye when one or two of them are hurting themselves." He let out a sigh as he looked at his newest passengers, sitting before him, the two girls on the floor attempting to console one another.

"Forget about him," Bec whispered, trying to calm the other girl. "He thinks he knows best, thinks he's in control, but he's not." Bec had suffered her own hardships in her life, but the one thing that had kept her strong was her belief that life wasn't without reason, that all things, good, bad and terrible, were planned and purposed, and that she could trust the one behind the design. "God's in control, not him. It'll be alright, okay?" She continued to whisper reassurances, as she deliberately tuned out the voices of their captor and his companion.

"God's in control," Cathryn whispered in agreement. With the help of her friend, the anxiety had managed to simmer down.

"As for the other rules-" The Doctor turned back to them.

"Too tired," Cathryn said, interrupting him. "Not going to listen about rules." Leaning wearily against the coral. "Not that I would care if I was fully awake." Her quiet mutter was something the Time Lord didn't miss. Yes, both girls would definitely prove to be a handful.

The Doctor inhaled looking at his new charges. He was going to have them go to the medbay and discuss the results while he ran a few more tests but with one girl barely conscious...the discussion would have to wait until tomorrow. Besides, it would give him a little more time to verify the initial results to the DNA typing he had already done. "Let's say we get you two back to your rooms." Cathryn yelped in protest as he quickly her from the floor before carrying her to the room assigned to her by the TARDIS, taking measure to pull back the covers so she could sleep in comfort underneath. Perhaps it was some small mercy that sleep claimed her before he placed her onto the bed. Only then did he make adjustments to circuitry inside her room.

"What's that?" Bec asked seeing the advanced circuitry.

"One part of the neural frame port that connects this area of the ship to the TARDIS," the Doctor explained. "I'm just telling the TARDIS to keep a watch on her vitals." He had been very quick in the injection he gave her ultimately satisfied as he pulled the blanket on top of her.

"Now Bec..." he started, turning to the woman who was simply shaking her head. She didn't want to be here, she didn't want any of this to be happening. She simply wanted to be home with her family, but she restrained her thoughts of her children, fearing she would break if she didn't. Deliberately, she focused on the matter at hand.

"You had no right to take that medication from her," Bec said with slow determination. "Give them back."

"I discarded all those containers."

"How lucky of you. When Cathryn panics, we can just wring our hands together and watch," Bec said with contempt. "Gee, that will be fun. Will there be popcorn?"

" Rebecca," he started, but she pointedly shook her head and turned away.

"I assume there's no point looking for my pills either?" She sighed and cut him off as he tried to answer. "Just… just go away. Just…" She took a position besides Cathryn's bed. "Please, just go away."

After a long pause, he finally backed off. His measured steps faded as she closed her eyes. "Now, how to get out of this nightmare?" Bec pondered to herself.

A few minutes after, he hadn't returned, she pulled the chair from Cathryn's desk next to her bed. She didn't know if this was an exact replica of her friend's room as hers had been, but just in case, she tried to maintain her self-control to not scrutinise everything, thereby invading her privacy. Instead, as she sat, she tried to remember everything she could about the episodes she'd seen, the stories she'd read and the ones she'd written, trying to think of anything that might help them.

But as much as she tried to concentrate, her mind kept slipping to those two little boys waiting to be picked up. She could almost see their tears when their Mummy never came for them, perhaps never came home at all... She ruthlessly held onto the hope that she would get home, even arrive back in the school yard mere moments after she'd left, if not from her perspective.

Her useless thoughts continued to spiral into less and less coherence, jumping from her children, to her family, to her loathing of all things Doctor Who, to everything she'd left behind, until she was merely reciting paradigms from her Greek classes: ' _Loo-oh. Loo-ace. Loo-aye. Loo-omen. Loo-eteh. Loo-oosin_...'

She jerked in her seat at a soft knock on the door, surprised that she had dozed off in such an uncomfortable position. "Hello?" a voice called in tentatively from the hall. A soft smile crept across the older woman's face. It wasn't Rose's fault that the Doctor had trapped them.

Bec stood and silently made her way to the door. "I didn't know what you wanted," the young Londoner told her, holding out a glass of water. "I'm Rose. And, it was Rebecca, yeah?"

"Just Bec. The only people who call me Rebecca are teachers and other people I don't like." She grinned at her own implication as she accepted the glass. She took a small sip then simply nursed the drink, thinking longingly about a cup of tea.

"Why don't you like the Doctor?" Rose asked, catching on instantly. "He's only trying to help you both."

Bec pressed her lips together as she considered what she could say to the girl. She couldn't risk disenfranchising Rose against the Doctor, or she risked altering the future, and the Doctor and Rose were always meant to be.

"What's the Doctor told you about us?" she asked, testing the waters.

"He said you were in trouble. Something about energy and psycho... telepathic..."

"Of course he did," Bec agreed, her tone flat.

"He can help you, yeah? The Doctor, that's what he does?" The innocent belief in the girl's voice had the small smile twitching at the edge of Bec's lips again.

"Rose, imagine a little old lady walking down the street. She's frail and weak, but when you go and offer to help her cross the road, she vehemently turns you down. Would you force her to accept your help while she screams blue murder as you drag her unwillingly across the road? Turns out she never _wanted_ to cross the road. We don't want… _this_."

 _But it wasn't like that,_ Rose thought. The Doctor had said they were in danger, and he couldn't just walk away, even if they didn't think they needed the help. "You look exhausted," she said, changing the subject. "How about you go have a rest, yeah? I can sit with her for a while and find you when she wakes up."

"Thanks, but no," Bec replied, a flash of resentment shooting through her as she thought of the room that was _not_ her room. "I'd rather just wait."

"How about a bite to eat, yeah? You must be famished by now." Bec smiled at Rose's concern. She truly was as caring as she seemed on the show. She could only hope the Doctor learned a few things.

"Thank you," she said again with a smile. "But we can get something together when Cathryn wakes up." She was worried about how fragile Cathryn was, and she didn't want her to wake alone into this hell and, though she refused to admit it to herself, she didn't particularly want to be on her own either. "Umm, you wouldn't happen to know where my shoes are though, would you?" she asked the girl.

"Yeah, I put them in the cupboard with your other shoes. That's alright, yeah?"

Bec laughed silently to herself. Of course, it made sense that her shoes would be put away where they were meant to be.

"Yeah, thanks," Bec smiled at the young Londoner.

After Rose gracefully left, she returned to her chair and let her mind sink back into fruitless, mind numbing paradigms. ' _Log-os. Log-oo. Log-oh..._ '

She jerked in her seat again when a second voice punctured the silence.

"I'm sorry." Cathryn woke up feeling miserable. "I panicked. I didn't know what I was doing." It was a blur. Running to the door, wanting it to be a dream. Her surroundings certainly seemed so.

"It wasn't your fault," Bec said. "Luckily nothing happened."

'Yes, lucky for me." Cathryn's voice was flat. "So lucky for us this is real."

"He chucked out your medication." She wanted to be straightforward and Cathryn sighed.

"Why wouldn't he? It must be so much more entertaining this way." She shook her head. "I'm sorry. After what you're going through with Matty."

Bec's expression turned stony and she looked away. "But he's okay, he's safe. He has to be and we _will_ get home." Now in privacy, she could share any sense of optimism she had without the Doctor's interference.

"Maybe the rift brought us here." Cathryn said in thought.

"Which means...?" Bec asked in confusion.

"It could be our way home."

"You two are awake!" It was Rose's voice entering the room. "Must be hungry, yeah? Brought back some fish n' chips and-"

"No," Cathryn said, staring at the wall. "No thank you. I have tremendous allergies to pretty much everything but...why don't you two go ahead," she suggested to Bec who looked at her friend with a grimace while Rose appeared incredulous. Bec had hoped that the allergies Laura, the name Cathryn used in her self insert, listed in her story were merely added for depth of character, rather than true allergies Cathryn herself had.

"Allergic to fish n' chips?" Rose exclaimed. The way she consumed them, she'd couldn't imagine such a horrendous possibility.

"Yes, allergic. Soy by-products, msg, cumin, chilli pepper, coconut and..."

"All right." Rose gave a brief sigh. That seemed complicated. Maybe the Doctor could determine a diet regimen for her. "So, 's alright with you? Fish and chips? I grabbed your shoes too. Hope you don't mind. Maybe just..." Rose raised her eyebrows at Bec.

"I don't know," Bec said, glancing back at Cathryn. She didn't want to leave her, but her stomach was grumbling uncomfortably, and the thought of hot chips sounded wonderful. She hadn't eaten anything for a while and only had a drink of water at the Starbucks they were caught in.

"Only take a few ticks, be back before you know it," Rose encouraged.

It was with some reluctance that Bec managed to leave. When she did, Cathryn tossed the covers side. Perhaps, Bec going to the kitchen would be a significant draw to the Doctor to at least check on her progress. _Yes, please let him just check on her progress._ The kitchen was right next to the console room. She needed only the space of mere minutes and if luck was with her, they would be back in London for a recharge before the next episode. He stipulated rules not to go inside his console room without him being present but perhaps if he thought Cathryn was still laid up, she wouldn't even consider this.

Creeping into the console room, luck was still on her side. She allowed herself a brief smile. She knew where the switches were.

Bec was sitting facing the door trying to wolf down the chips while she surreptitiously pushed the battered fish to the far side of her plate. She reached for her tea only to be jolted as an alarm rang through the TARDIS. Without a second thought, she was on her feet, heading directly into the console room.

"Come on!" Cathryn yelled immediately upon Bec's arrival, over Rose's cry of, " _Wait!_ " They sprinted out the door together, finding themselves across the road from a chip shop where Bec assumed Rose had recently visited.

The world looked out of date. The clothes and hairstyles being out of fashion, at least they would be. Bec nodded internally, remembering a comment Rose made once that chips tasted better back when they used newspaper to wrap them in... Did she say that on the show? Or was that from a story she'd once read? Absentmindedly, she considered using the reference herself, but she angrily shook the thought away as they careened down the street.

"Now what?" she asked, hoping the other had a plan.

They both had their purses in with them. It would suffice. The era with tie die as well as brightly colored clothing, looking mid 1970's. "C'mon," Cathryn prompted as grabbed Bec's hand, heading into the nearest underground station. Luckily their pounds were undisturbed. "The train station."

"Which one?"

"King's Cross," Cathryn said. "Thirty years ago. The technology isn't what we're accustomed to. We can take the bullet train to Paris."

"Couldn't he just materialize the TARDIS inside the train?" Bec was thinking about 'Lost in Reality'. How the Doctor's there knew exactly where Sara had fled too but Cathryn shook her head.

"It's a Faraday cage. Should block any signals that we have." She looked knowingly at Bec. "All the metal. Another fanfiction author, Carol, she has her degree in math, explained it to me. It's like one big bio-dampner."

Bec raised her eyebrows. This plan might actually have some merit. They took the tube station directly to King's Cross, heading to the San Pancreas station adjoining it, buying tickets for the next outbound train before hurrying to the platform.

"I thought...with 'Lost in Time'..." Bec raised her eyebrows. She was referring to how the ninth version of the Doctor caught up with Sara on the train going to Paris.

"Well, to be honest, I didn't know enough about Faraday Cages at the time. I suppose if you want me to explain it away, he made a deduction and he's a time traveler or hacked into the outbound passenger list." Cathryn shrugged. "Still, to be frank, it was just a goof on my part. Carol brought up the concept a few weeks prior and I looked it up to get a better idea." Cathryn nodded. "We'll need to go to a currency exchange." She wished she had the sonic still in her possession. That would have been very useful. Still they had enough cash to lead the Doctor hopefully on a wild goose chase.

Cathryn took care of all the details while Bec kept a lookout. Luckily, there were no unexpected surprises for them, and within forty minutes they were boarding the train. Once they were comfortably seated, Bec pulled out her phone and began rummaging through her apps, photos and notes.

"What are you doing?" Cathryn asked beside her.

"Deleting anything Doctor Who related," she answered without looking up. "It probably won't stop him if he really looked, but if there's nothing to see at first glance, maybe he'll leave it be." Cathryn frowned at the assumption they wouldn't get away. "I couldn't do it earlier, he'd have noticed, but now? Sorry, but I don't want my phone destroyed if I can avoid it."

After a moment, she slipped her phone away and turned to the girl beside her. "While we have this chance, we need to work out what we're going to do. But first, how are you doing, Sweetie?" she asked, concerned for her friend's wellbeing.

"I don't know." Cathryn said. "I don't even want to think right now." She shook her head. "At least when I was home, even though I thought I was in a nightmare, each morning, I felt, hey, I will wake up and it might just all go back to normal." She clenched her hands tightly in front of her. "But now we have this. On top of it, he took my medication away. Everything that sort of kept me sane." She exhaled. "At school, after what happened to my Dad, I would have anxiety attacks. Haven't had those in years. But does he care? No, of course not." Clenching her teeth, she spat out, "Because it's always his way. He's the ultimate authority. He gets to decide everything." She pulled out her iPad from her purse. "But you're right. I have a couple little apps. Best delete them just in case." She went to work through the same monotonous task.

"Is there any chance he can retrieve them?" Bec only managed quietly.

"Of course there is a chance but he would have to know they were there to begin with or whether the iPads or iPhones were worth anything to restore." Cathryn muttered. "If you really want to make everything irretrievable, best to find a vat of salt water and then bake it in an oven. No chance then but your iPad and iPhones will be history along with everything else on it." Cathryn shook her head. "I'd rather not. Not for a couple little, silly trivia games. Episodes maybe but I never downloaded them on these. Just my laptop."

Bec took a deep breath, grimacing at the thought before putting away her devices. They weren't much but they were from home. She didn't see the point in taking such extreme measures.

"What about getting something to eat?" she suggested after they'd been travelling for a while. She beckoned towards the beverage car. They still had another hour on the train to get to Paris.

"I suppose I could always go for a brandy," Cathryn muttered. "When we get to Paris, our best bet is to find a hostel. Enough metal in those things that should hide our signal. We find a job."

"In a place that only speaks French?"

"With British and American tourists there every day? Majority of them speak English. In fact, many Americans work there. I met one that worked at a chocolate shoppe, surprisingly." Cathryn shrugged. "Computers being what they are, at least it will be simpler in those terms," Cathryn said. "As I said, I wish I could have found the sonic but it wasn't in the console room."

"Personally, I'd want to get my hands on the psychic paper. A sonic screwdriver will get you so far, but the psychic paper gives you instant ID and excuses. Having both would probably be the best way to go. Maybe we can work out a plan for next time." Bec pressed her lips together momentarily, biting them between her teeth as she did so. "What if the TARDIS still translates for us when we get there?"

"I don't even want to think about it," Cathryn asserted, and Bec let the subject drop. She doubted they'd gotten away as cleanly as the younger woman seemed to hope, but they had a few hours to live in hope.

They negotiated their way to the buffet car, the Australian choosing both a meal and cup of tea while her American friend chose for herself a stronger drink. Bec smiled as she picked at her hot chicken salad, wondering why, in every universe, healthy meals were always so much more expensive than their greasy unhealthy counterparts.

"Why did you grab that sugar," Cathryn asked, her memory jogged as she watched Bec adding a few sachets worth to her tea.

Bec almost looked sheepish as she remembered her pathetic attempt to fight back against the Doctor. "Ahh… at school, in self-defense class, we were taught that if you hold something, like lipstick or something, inside your fist, it makes your punch stronger and protects your hand from injury more. The sugar was the only thing I could see that I could hold like that." She shrugged as her mind started drifting to other matters.

"We need to make some sort of plan for when he shows up again," she suggested tentatively. She didn't want to push the other, but she wouldn't have been surprised to arrive in Paris and find the Doctor standing there waiting for them. They needed to come up with a plan where he couldn't follow them, because, somewhere out there, he was likely frantically searching for any trace of them. She remembered the months he spent with Donna searching for Sara and Penny, and she had little doubt he would do the same to them. "I was thinking that our best chance will be in Pete's world. He won't have the TARDIS, and if we sneak off at the right moment, he might think we were caught by the Cybermen. In a few years they'll have that dimension cannon. We might be able to get home."

Cathryn looked at Bec with some consideration while sipping her brandy. She knew what Bec was saying. It was logical. Right now, they had a limited amount of cash and it wouldn't last. They didn't have ID's. It might be simpler to achieve a fake but they would still be required to forge or duplicate something that resembled a green card. In Cathryn's grief and shock, she hadn't thought it through and given away the fact that she could open the doors. Or had she? The Doctor wasn't in the console room. She had pulled the switches a few times and heard two clicks. Her timing might have just been lucky. Maybe it was still an ace in the hole. Maybe. The Doctor only gave them rules to not be in the console room or handle the doors without him. He might have thought her stepping into the Vortex was a scare that would put her off from doing the same. She knew the Doctor in all his memory had to actually search and try to recall the little things.

But she didn't like it. It was almost like giving up right now. Handing themselves back to the Doctor. And being the Doctor, he was a lot of things but he wasn't an idiot. He would be suspect if they walked up and handed themselves back over...for Bec's plan to work...

She took another sip of brandy and finally nodded at Bec. "You're right. I wasn't thinking." Cathryn shook her head. "I should of waited but..."

"It wasn't your fault. It was a shock." Bec gave a brief shrug. "It's hard to think clearly when something like that happens. I don't want to give in but..."

"We can't just stand around and wait for him to pick us up, you know," Cathryn said to Bec. "We have to make it look convincing. If the plan for Pete's World is going to work...well, won't you just be a bit suspicious if we got off the train and just sat down on the bench, waiting for him to retrieve us?" Cathryn shrugged. "He might not predict human response all the time but he might think we have something up our sleeves."

"So we have to make our escape look convincing?" Bec asked. It was almost so opposing but there was a logic to it. She remembered how in Cathryn's story, Honor and Laura jumped through different trains in the underground only to be tricked into the TARDIS. Then they conversed and came to terms. A bargain. But Laura in that story had such a way with words. Bec on the other hand didn't like lying no matter what it was called, not to mention she felt she was really bad at it. Half truths, lies by omission. Yet, they were dealing with an adversary. And full out honesty wasn't admittedly going to work here.

"We'll head out of the train station. If we see him, we'll run. We'll put on a good show," Cathryn said. "I'm not going to make it easy for him. Once on board, we'll 'talk'." Cathryn sighed. "I'll try to handle that part of it. Won't lie if I can help it but we'll have to make it seem like we reached a compromise. An accord. Be friendly with Rose. Go along with his tests. Still tell him we want to go home...there's one episode before the Cybermen. He'll romance the courtesan. That's our chance. That time before. Find an extra sonic. Psychic paper."

"And we slip away in Pete's World?" Bec asked.

"It shouldn't be hard," Cathryn asserted. "Rose will go after her father's duplicate. Pete. Mickey will head the other direction to see his grandmother's duplicate." She nodded to herself. "That's our chance when we have those things in order." She gave it some consideration. "If we don't get the psychic paper and sonic before we hit Pete's World, we knock him unconscious and take them when he's caught off guard." Cathryn winced. She hoped it wouldn't come to that. The Time Lord skull was thicker. Once or if they succeeded, they would only have minutes before he woke.

"And if he follows us and not Rose?"

The conductor was starting to announce their stop at the Gare de Nord station in Paris and Cathryn pushed her glass back on the bar. "Then we'll be back with the knocking him unconscious idea. Time to perform," she said, looking at Bec. "Are you okay with this?"

"Ready to frustrate a Time Lord?" she asked with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "You betcha! And if we get split up, let's plan to meet at the Eiffel Tower, no, the Louvre - I've always wanted to see the Louvre - that might give more believability if we have back-up escape plans. 'Though-" She winced comically at herself "-I'll probably get lost..."

Cathryn chuckled slightly, but more at Bec's attempt to cheer her up than at her humour.

The train jolted slightly as it began to slow down. The two had made their way to one of the exits, but unfortunately, so had a great number of the other passengers and they ended up squished uncomfortably to one side. They waited to pull into the station, trying to breathe lightly in the presence of the odourous man beside them.

The carriage bounced to a stop and the girls took a large gulp of fresh air. Bec felt slightly relieved to hear an unintelligible, monotonous male voice making an announcement over the station's sound system. "When disembarking, please mind the gap," the announcement was repeated in English in an equally monotonous feminine voice. _Good_ , Bec thought to herself. If she didn't understand French, that implied the TARDIS was nowhere nearby, didn't it? _Or..._ She frowned. Or that they had yet to be linked to the TARDIS translation circuit. She hoped it was the former, for then they would have some warning when the Doctor was nearby.

"It looks clear," she said after a moment. "Did you want to try finding one of those hotel things you were talking about?"

"Yeah," Cathryn agreed, looking about with equal caution. "We'll catch a light rail and find a hostel close to the station, that way we can have minimum exposure for him to detect us."

They slowly worked their way through the international station, looking for the exit towards the local connections. "Papers?" a woman asked them just as they were about to push through the turnstile.

Obviously she wanted their passports. It was now only fortuitous that the Doctor suddenly appeared, advancing right toward their direction. _Oh no, he's not getting the satisfaction of catching us this quickly,_ Cathryn thought, even though her idea bordered on extreme.

"Wait, you have to help us!" she insisted to the woman in front of her asking for documentation. "That man." She pointed at the Doctor. "That man right there. He was threatening us. He said he had a bomb."

The woman gasped but others heard Cathryn too as they looked at the Doctor in sudden terror before Cathryn plastered a horrified look on her face hoping Bec would follow suit whirling around. "Everyone!" she shrieked. "You have to run. He has a bomb! He said he would blow up the train station!"

Chaos broke out. Screaming. People running each direction as Cathryn grabbed Bec's hand disappearing in the mass of people who were frantically running out of the train station onto the street. Down underground into the metro. Cathryn jumped from one line to another while keeping a close eye on the map. It was easy to understand. All the lines were color coded with the end station being the direction of the train. Finally, they emerged at the beginning of the Champs Elysees. They turned, heading the opposite direction from the Eiffel Tower.

"Where are we going?" Bec managed to gasp.

"The Louvre." Cathryn knew it was essentially down the same road, rounding a juncture through a round about just two blocks distant of the Opera Garnier. "You wanted to see it." She shook her head. "Good thing the pyramid isn't built yet. That was one of the worst ideas they ever had."

"The Louvre." Bec didn't know Cathryn had taken her idea so seriously.

"Why not? It's huge and it takes days to go through," Cathryn said. "Well, you'll see." A tourist outlet allowed them to exchange some of their pounds for francs. In this decade, they hadn't made the switch to Euros. Fortunately, the same retailer also sold tickets to the museum. Pocketing them, they headed across the street and into the museum. There were multiple exhibits. Egyptian. Renaissance objects. Classical art. Cathryn stared at each one trying to make up her mind.

"Cathryn!" Bec hissed. She noticed the TARDIS appearing in an empty corner. The familiar grinding noise. Cathryn nodded and clenched her jaw as the Doctor stepped out giving the two of them a look.

"This way!" Cathryn said decisively, pulling Bec into the Egyptian exhibit. It had multiple hallways, confusing corridors. It was perfect to give the Doctor a good chase to make it convincing. Both knew they couldn't go down without a fight. Cathryn could only hope that the 'bomb scare' worked as a decent instigator. She could only imagine how much use of the psychic paper the Doctor needed for that. Even so, he likely cheated in the time jump to find them.

 _At least I get to see the Louvre,_ Cathryn thought. Poor consolation that was. Running here was just a game. When they went to Pete's World, then it would be for real. There would be no second chances after that. It was why so much hedged on making this chase appear real and motivated by desperation. They needed all the help they could get.

The two women ran together through the various displays, but as they fought through the multitudes of people, they were slowly driven apart. "Just keep going!" Bec called, waving her arm forward when the other stopped ahead of her and glanced back. Cathryn met her eyes and nodded, taking off once more.

While Bec found it far more comforting to be fleeing with her friend, she knew that, ultimately, it would make little difference, and they could put up a better show of resistance if they separated regardless. She deliberately turned down a different pathway, and found herself in a dark room with a Technicolor movie playing on ancient Egyptian culture. She hid herself behind a curtain that obscured the staff exit and paused to catch her breath.

A moment later, the Doctor ran into the room, closely followed by Rose and a gangly Mickey. Bec tried to breathe as quietly as possible, but rather than breathing shallowly like people do on the movies, she took deep slow breaths, desperately trying to restrain the urge to gasp for air.

"What do you mean the sonic isn't working?" Rose was asking him as he studied the room.

"Somewhere nearby there's something transmitting a signal that's interfering with my settings. I know they're close but I can't get a lock," the Time Lord was saying with evident frustration, even as he glanced back down at the device. Bec felt a hint of relief flow through her. If she could find Cathryn and let her know, then all they would need to do is stay near the Louvre and he couldn't find them.

"But this is a museum," Mickey interrupted. "How can there be something alien here?"

The Doctor sniffed as he continued scanning the room. The scent was getting stronger, as if lingering in the air. One of them was still in the room. "Exactly," he told the young man. "Someone dug something up they didn't understand so they stuck up on display. _Humans_." He walked deeper into the room, sniffing the air as he tried to pinpoint the source of the scent.

"Then how are we going to find them?" Rose demanded.

"I can smell them," the Doctor replied simply as his eyes alighted on the curtain on the far side of the room.

"What are you? A bloodhound?" Mickey exclaimed in disbelief, but his comment wasn't quite loud enough to drown out Bec's whispered, " _You're kidding me_ ," from the Time Lord's ears.

However, luck was on her side. The Doctor launched himself across the room towards her as the staff door she hid by opened. She slipped past a surprised cleaner, ignoring the woman's shouts, pushed the trolley into the darkened room and slammed the door just as the Doctor reached it. She sprinted down the bright boring hallway listening closely to the Doctor's receding voice shouting at her as she tried to come up with a new plan.

The sonic might not work, but in the maze-like halls and rooms and pathways of the Louvre, he'd have no problems following them if he could smell them.

Her mind drew up images for her of the Doctor searching for the Master at the End of Time, and then she switched to thinking of Laura and Honor and their Time Lord heritage. Surely they couldn't be... She shook her head. No, he could smell Shae and Sara too. It must simply be something about the way she and Cathryn were drawn into this world.

But if he could smell them and follow them through the halls, then their safest option was outside where the breeze could disperse their scent, but then they'd be exposed to his screwdriver... What was it Cathryn said? A Faraday cage. A cage of metal to mask their signal. What better outdoor cage than the Eiffel Tower?

She searched for an exit back into the museum proper, but now she could hear a loud smattering of footsteps rapidly approaching.

She went through the first door she found and raced into a crowded room of paintings. She ran to the nearest security guard, knowing her pursuer was too close to evade unless she stalled.

"Help me!" she begged, hoping the man spoke English. She was surprised by how desperate and fearful her own voice sounded, she didn't even need to try to fake it. "There's a man! He's chasing me!" She turned in time to see the Doctor emerge from the door hidden amongst the paneling on the wall. "Look!" She pointed at him, just as his eyes found on her. The security guard said something, but Bec was already running again.

She heard a commotion behind her and hoped it was enough to slow him down. She found herself wondering where Cathryn had gone, even as she ran through the glass doors to the outside world and fled onto the street.

xxxxxxxxxx

Cathryn found herself pulled apart from Bec as she headed through the various contours of the cavernous Egyptian section of the Louvre. She stayed to the exterior, out of the central avenues where the artifacts were being kept under glass. Tourists were pausing to look speaking in mixed tones. It was so convenient to her that it was in entirely in English even though she knew some French. But then she grimaced, realizing the implications as to why.

She glanced behind her, letting out a gasp barely ducking into a small paneled hallway that went into a loop at seeing the Doctor's approach. He had been scanning for her but didn't make eye contact. What was it? Void matter? Or something else? They hadn't stayed on the TARDIS long and Rose didn't seem to ask for much in terms of an explanation or was given a simplified one to hand to Bec. She shook her head. It was something more. She saw his eyes when he used his sonic on her. The expression he had the first time she encountered him.

If it was something else….didn't Carol tell her that artron or other energy could be transferred to pieces of clothing they wore. If they really had time energy in their system… _there is nothing to lose…_ she immediately pulled off her jacket and her scarf. Letting her scarf fall where she stood, she made her way along the corridor, taking a careful glance around the corner of the opposite loop. He was on the other end but distinctly frowning at the readings. He was close enough for her to hear his voice.

"What is it?" Rose asked.

"Multiple readings," the Doctor responded simply before entering into the loop. Cathryn slowly emerged at the opposite end, turning left to head up the stairs.

"Cathryn, stop," his voice suddenly commanded. She turned as their eyes suddenly met. Her scarf in his hand. He was approaching her, giving her a look. She fled, continuing her ascent up the stairs, around the corner and into the cafeteria. Looking around, she spotted a girl with similar hair colour and figure. An idea sprung to mind. "One hundred francs if you wear my sweater and coat," she told her. "I'm playing a prank on this man." She shrugged, rolling her eyes in an exaggerated gesture. "Repayment for something he did to me."

"Ah, man troubles is it?" the girl asked in a French accent. But she didn't argue, accepting the bribe.

"You have no idea," Cathryn said. The exchange quickly done, she ducked down and headed out the door across the outside patio of the Louvre and towards the street. She needed to find Bec. _The Eiffel Tower,_ Cathryn thought. That was their secondary designated meeting spot. It was a distance to run. She immediately headed down into the Metro to buy a pass on their underground line.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Now, this is getting out of hand," the Doctor said in frustration. He thought that he spotted Cathryn only to realise it was another girl wearing her sweater and coat. It was any wonder he could smell the trail on her.

"She told me it was trouble with men." The girl smiled. "A prank, no?"

"A prank… very funny." He scowled as he looked around the cafeteria. There was no sign of either girl, but there could be a distinct problem in the Louvre he needed to investigate. He had lost sight of Rebecca when the guards stalled him at the doors and Cathryn only managed to deliver to him a distraction.

"So, how is it that you can smell them?" Rose asked and Mickey raised his eyebrows. The Doctor simply glanced at them. He hadn't discussed it with his companions or with his charges that were simply trying to outpace him. He shook his head, once again, inhaling through his nose before looking down the street. He couldn't get a signal, where they were but he could get their scent on the breeze. He glanced in the direction the breeze was coming from, at the Eiffel Towel. "C'mon," he said to Rose and Mickey, heading back to the TARDIS. "This will be quicker."

"Doctor?" Rose prompted again. He didn't answer her question nor did he answer Mickey's.

Once inside the console room, the Doctor programmed in the coordinates before looking at Rose. How to explain it? "Because… they're family," he admitted finally, immediately turning back to his task.

Rose and Mickey looked at him stunned.

xxxxxxxxxx

Cathryn couldn't help but grin upon seeing Bec at the top of the Eiffel Tower. True, she hated heights. She actually had never done this when she went to Paris in the first place but if it would distract the Doctor and have him take this chase seriously… their plan for Pete's World would be even likelier to succeed.

"Bec, thank God you made it," Cathryn said. "I think…" She glanced around. "I think it's more than just void matter. He's able to track it on my clothing so it can be transferred. That and-"

"He can smell us," Bec told her simply, her expression almost cross at the thought.

Cathryn looked at her horrified. "But…" She looked stunned. "That only happens between Time Lords and well…." She thought of Sara in 'Lost in Reality'. He could smell her because of the bond. "We… well, we would have to be absolutely covered in artron for him to pick that up." She knew artron had a sweet smell from parts of her research. The only time it was extremely pronounced was at a planet Honor and Laura visited before the Family of Blood… Cathryn swallowed.

"Couldn't the ninth Doctor smell Sara?" Bec asked, thinking about the first chapter of 'Lost in Reality' when Lilly and Sara first crossed paths.

"Very close proximity and Sara was generating huge amounts of it." Cathryn bit her lip. "This isn't…"

"Weeell, hello, you two." A voice behind them. The Doctor. Cathryn gasped, seizing Bec's hand pulling her to the open elevator. "Sorrrry." The door closed directly in front of them. "Elevator is temporarily out of order."

"The stairs," Cathryn said.

"But it's several hundred steps," Bec protested.

"Which he can't take out of order," Cathryn affirmed as they jogged down to the first landing.

It was an idea that had merit until Mickey stepped directly in front of them on the next landing blocking their progress. "Going down?" He raised his eyebrows. The girls froze, both knowing they couldn't risk injuring a companion. _What can I do?_ Cathryn thought desperately looking at Bec before making the mistake to glance down. A severe case of vertigo threatened as she waivered on her feet. Anxiety built up in her chest, constricting her throat. Her medication wasn't on hand. _Can't be here,_ she thought. _I can't be here._

Distantly, she heard Bec argue with Mickey, pleading with him to move. Blindly, Cathryn bolted back up the stairs in panic.

"Mickey the Idiot," Bec challenged. "You've got to let us past."

"Na-ah," the young man denied. "The Doctor says you're in some sor'of trouble, even though you don' believe it."

"Yeah, we're in trouble… _from him_. You _know_ him, Mickey. You know the danger he puts people in, especially Rose. We don't want that. _Please_ help us," she pleaded.

"How d'you know that?" he demanded suspiciously, but Bec's attention was drawn to the echoing footsteps behind her, except, to her confusion, they were receding not approaching. She turned to see Cathryn fleeing back the way they'd come.

"Cathryn, NO!" she called, following the other girl. She used to be so good at stairs, when she had sixty to walk up to reach her old house every day, carrying children and shopping, but now after only a dozen or so steps her legs and throat were burning.

"Cathryn!" she called again as the other bent under a ribbon with a 'closed for maintenance' sign on it. She could see the Doctor approaching and didn't even care that they were going to reach the barrier at the same time.

He grabbed her by both forearms even as she watched her friend flee. She didn't know why that section was closed off and was suddenly terrified that Cathryn might fall to her death. "Please, help her!" she begged the Time Lord, and his eyes left her and returned to the other's retreating back.

"Stay here with Rose and Mickey," he ordered, looking back down on her. "Right here. Don't move."

She nodded and begged, "Just don't let her get hurt."

He let go and took off after Cathryn, and Rose quickly stepped up beside her. "She'll be alright. The Doctor will help her."

Bec shook her head, her eyes still locked on the distant figures, but she wasn't denying the young blonde's words, but the belief behind them. "She never would have panicked if it wasn't for him. The Doctor isn't here to help _us_." She wiped the tears of defeat that she was surprised to feel on her cheeks as she watched the two facing each other, their voices tangible but meaningless on the brisk wind.

xxxxxxxxxx

Cathryn stumbled along an area finding another staircase that led downwards. The steps felt rickety beneath her feet. In her mind, she was churning. She had to get home. Her father needed her. She couldn't be this far away.

She heard a voice behind her, calling her name. Another step down. One more. Suddenly a horrid screeching of metal. The very step she was on seemed to give beneath her feet. She heard the sound of metal bolts springing loose. She panicked, about to lunge forward for the next step down only for her foot to find empty air. A broken off stair. She struggled for balance…to find the next stairwell but her body was tipping forward and the sound of metal continuing to give echoed all around her.

The Doctor saw what was happening. The staircase wasn't secure. He reacted immediately, using his sonic to temporarily secure some of the bolts but it would only buy him a few precious seconds. That was before he saw Cathryn about to step into empty air. One lunge down, he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her directly against him and off her feet as she continued to panic. Her feet meeting only air as he fought to secure his grip while pulling her up the stairwell.

"Cathryn," he said, in his most soothing tone, right above her ear. "It's alright. You're alright. Just calm down. It's-"

"No!" she said in panic. "I'm too far away! I have to get home! He needs me," she gasped. "Can't be this far away. There's no one to watch over him!" She was frantic. "Let go!" she cried out. "Just let go!"

With his arms around her, he sighed as he gently began pressing into her mind. The hypnotic quality his tone took seemed to pervade her thoughts, starting to purge her anxiety. " _You're not too far away, are you Cathryn?"_ His voice was centered. Human telepathy was one thing but now with his thoughts in her mind, the very portion that was once so familiar and he thought lost to Gallifrey. No. This communication was reminiscent of one he used with his own children. _"They're alright. You're family is just fine."_

He felt Cathryn start to relax in his arms and he started to sigh with relief. "They're just fine?" she asked as her voice trembled.

The Doctor didn't know for certain about the family she was speaking of but he had no reason to doubt they weren't okay. " _Just fine,"_ he told her soothingly, giving her every calming sensation he could muster. _"But you're tired, Cathryn. You would feel better if you just went to sleep."_ With that notion planted in her mind, she collapsed in his arms. Lifting her upwards, he was able to carry her out of the dangerous area of the Eiffel Tower, back to his companions and his other charge, who looked at Cathryn in worry.

He looked at Rebecca sternly before glancing down at Cathryn, shaking his head. It was a near miss. They had put their own lives at risk in their attempt to run from him. Neither had taken the chance to hear him out. "Now, I think we really need to talk." His TARDIS parked near the service elevator for the Eiffel Tower was only a few feet away. "Going to run this time?"

Defeat had entered Bec's tone. Mickey and Rose had not left her side. The Doctor was staring at her with those singular ancient eyes, her friend, unconscious in his arms. She was stuck. Besides, this was only to try convince the Doctor that this chase was real, that this was their desperate one last attempt at escape. Cathryn and herself agreed to not go down without a fight but indeed, she was cornered and there was nowhere else to go. Truth be told, the Doctor did seem utterly convinced by their attempt. Cathryn's anxiety attack was the one added touch that neither girl intended that would cement this in the Doctor's mind.

Looking wearily at her guards and at the Doctor standing in front of her, she allowed her shoulders to drop. "And where would I go?" she asked faintly. She allowed her voice to become lackluster. Hopeless. She swallowed thickly as the Doctor finally nodded, turning to lead them back to the TARDIS. Rose and Mickey fell in close behind her. Bec knew why. It was just in case she changed her mind. She could only take a deep breath, steeling herself as she followed the Doctor back up the stairs towards the TARDIS.

She froze when she saw it. She had thought the blue box was wonderful, marvelous, fantastic, but now it felt ominous and intimidating. It wasn't just a prop on a show. It wasn't just a fun game. It was a prison that, despite her words of hope to Cathryn, she feared they couldn't escape from. She had no illusions that they could outwit the Time Lord.

So, with trepidation, she stepped through the doors, even as she tried to bottle all her reactions down. After years of suffering recurring bouts of depression she was good at hiding how she felt, and she hoped she could be convincing enough to fool her captor, even though she doubted it.

As soon as they were on board, the Doctor nodded at Rose who then flicked those two little switches to lock the outer doors. He frowned as he saw Bec quietly observing Roses actions. Even if she didn't know what those switches were for, he doubted it would take her long to work out they were the deadlock now that she'd seen them used. He'd have to come up with a secondary security method until the two women were safely settled onto his ship.

Rose and Mickey dropped back as he'd asked them earlier, while he silently led the way to the medbay where he placed Cathryn gently on a bed and turned to the woman who stared at him challengingly by the door. "Rebecca," he began carefully.

"I'm not interested in what you have to say until you give me a reason to listen," she interrupted, using the same words and tone that she would against her tantrum throwing children. "And you can start by stopping all this telepathy nonsense."

"I didn't have a choice," he told her, his voice rising in frustration. "She was panicking and putting her own life at risk. I couldn't just allow-"

"You could have pulled her to safety then asked me to talk to her, to try to calm her down. Did you even think of that?"

"Of course I did, but in her state of mind she wouldn't have even recognised you. She barely even recognised me."

"You _chased_ her and _frightened_ her into that panic. That's _all_ you've done," she told him, glaring. "I was going to listen to you back at that cafe. Yes, Cathryn panicked, but _I_ was going to listen - right up until you got into my head and forced me to do what you wanted." His eyebrows furrowed slightly at her words. "Well, sorry, you blew it right then. How _dare_ you think that getting into our heads is okay," she fumed.

Behind him, Cathryn began to stir, so Bec stormed past him, ignoring his proximity as the girl woke, mindful of the panic she was likely to feel.

"Hey, Cathryn," she greeted her gently. "We're back on the TARDIS, but we're going to be okay, okay?"

When Cathryn opened her eyes, she remembered. She recalled all the panic she felt at feeling trapped in that metal structure, surrounded by the Doctor and his companions. The overwhelming anxiety, then being seized and having thoughts that weren't her own placed inside her own head before everything went dark. He put her to sleep again. He thought because he had the right and likely because he possessed them he had privy to their own minds.

"He got inside my head," Cathryn told Bec. "Again…." She cast a glare in the Time Lord's direction feeling panic lance through her. She remembered the plan. Yes, frustrate him. Make him believe the chase was real but was he going to usurp their will now that he had them?

"So, no free will now?" Cathryn managed. "Not even the right to our own thoughts? Your ship, your rules?" She shook her head as the Doctor tried to speak. She pushed herself off the bed, feeling anger overwhelm her and with one arm, she scattered a tray filled with medical equipment onto the floor. He took a step towards her. "What are you going to do now? Lobotomize me? Tell me my family is okay? That's what you did before!" She glanced at Bec. "You have no idea. My father is dying and you are locking us onboard this horrendous contraption!"

"Now just wait a moment," the Doctor said. "I'm sorry. I was only trying to save your life."

"That's so convenient," Cathryn told him icily. "When you grabbed Bec's arm and got inside her head, was her life in imminent jeopardy? Was the Starbucks around us about to implode?" She paused. "You think I actually enjoyed sharing your name just to free her from your control? Do you have any idea of what it is like to have your will just taken from you? You take ours so easily."

He frowned. Maybe he hadn't given it full consideration and Cathryn could see his expression. She knew that he was thinking that since they were just humans, he would always know what was best. He was older and wiser. With that, he thought he had authority over them. "I want my pills back," she told him icily.

"I had them destroyed," he said simply.

"You built your TARDIS, which operates on block transfer computations. She can make new ones." Cathryn folded her arms across her chest, ignoring Bec's frustrated groan. It didn't matter now. There was no point in hiding the sum of the knowledge she knew.

His eyes widened. He didn't know how precise their level of precognition was but they were family mixed with human genetics. How their TNA, specifically from the House of Lungbarrow, linking them to him interacted with time was not something he readily anticipated. It could be ancestral knowledge, he knew. "I have an alternative," he offered. The activation of their Time Lord genome was occurring rapidly, which would contribute to both women's apparent anxiety. He meant to give a dosage to Rebecca but she fled off the TARDIS before he could explain it.

Holding out a syringe, he nodded towards them. "This will both help with the anxiety and ease your transition." He glanced at Cathryn. "You already had one dose but it's likely time for another." He looked at Rebecca. "This would also assist you."

"No," Bec said calmly, shaking her head. "Thank you for the offer, but I would prefer the anxiety," she told him in a tone that plainly said she was not thankful for the offer at all.

The Doctor lowered his syringe bearing hand as he considered the two before him. They were obviously set against making things easy for him, each in their own way. Cathryn would react wildly negatively against him while Bec would remain stubbornly intractable.

"But since I can't trust you to not give me something when I'm unconscious or something, I'm making Cathryn my medical proxy. She's the closest thing I've got to next of kin." She remembered the way Laura and Honor had protected each other from the Time Lord and his unwanted medical intervention, and she knew that 'Laura' had simply been Cathryn writing herself into the story, while changing her name and other personal details. She was certain it was safer for her to put her trust in the American girl than the Time Lord in question.

He inwardly approved of her choice of words as they would give him leeway when he needed it. "So do you, both of you-" he glanced at Cathryn to include her "- give your medical and welfare proxy to your closest authoritative kin?"

They eyed him suspiciously as they considered his words. "Yeees," Bec finally agreed slowly with a single nod after finding no loop holes in his statement. Cathryn was from her own universe, so, regardless how many thousands of years back their kinship might go, she was the closest thing she had to family in this universe. She watched as he turned his eyes to Cathryn, even as his use of the word 'authoritative' continued to niggle at her.

"I'm sorry, what do you mean by 'authoritative'?" Cathryn asked.

"It's a formal way to mean your closest relative with the highest level of authority. So if, somehow, another member of your family was present with higher authority than you have over each other, your proxy would then divert to them," he explained. "Does this sound reasonable to you?"

Cathryn gave the matter some thought. In 'Living Fiction', Honor assigned herself as medical proxy and although reluctant, the Doctor allowed it. Considering the two were from the same dimension, they were considered the highest level in kinship. The Doctor, she supposed, was clarifying her wishes. Did she trust Bec enough to make decisions on her behalf when she was unconscious and otherwise unable to? That she would carry out the wishes she thought Cathryn would want? Cathryn thought about their e-mail exchange and how they shared a similarity in faith. She also doubted that Bec would agree to have the Doctor perform any undue treatments while Cathryn was merely asleep or just having an anxiety attack. _'Unless another family member is present.'_ Well, both their family members were in another dimension. If they happened to arrive here, Cathryn or Bec would then turn over proxy to them.

It did make a certain sense. Cathryn, when she was alone at the hospital would stand as secondary medical proxy for her father. If her mother couldn't be reached, then Cathryn would make decisions on his behalf but she knew regarding her father's medical welfare.

Finally, she nodded. "I agree with Bec in regards to my medical proxy." She glanced at the other girl, nodding. She trusted her. "It sounds reasonable to me."

The Doctor looked at them each and nodded with certainty. Their vocal agreement was all he needed as the head of the house of Lungbarrow. "Then by both your own agreement, I have been designated as your medical proxy," he stipulated clearly. "And as your primary physician, I deem you incapable of making this decision regarding your own healthcare-" He gestured to the syringe "-which will now be relegated to the proxy on both your behalf's."

Cathryn looked at him stunned. "You're kidding. I don't know who you think you are but you're not family." Of course she had written about adoption ceremonies into the house of Lungbarrow but she knew that had not taken place for either herself or Bec. "Bec is from _my_ reality. She's my highest in kin and my proxy."

"And I elected Cathryn as my proxy," Bec told him fiercely.

"I asked you both if you gave your medical and welfare proxy to your closest authoritative kin," he repeated. "You both agreed."

"Yes, and-"

"Before you decided to run off the TARDIS, I was unable to tell you the results of your test, including a simple genetics typing match." He took a deep breath.

"So what?" Cathryn posed. "It's artron energy isn't it? I figured by the way you went after my scarf and probably the girl in the restaurant." She clenched her jaw. "We were exposed in the void or something dormant was activated-"

"Exactly, something dormant was activated." He paused. "How much do you know about your grandfather, Cathryn, on your maternal side."

Bec froze internally, her face a mask of disgust. _Don't you dare…_ she thought.

Cathryn frowned. What did this have to do with anything? "He's dead. Died when I was six."

"Did he ever tell your family about his life growing up?"

"No. It was a very sensitive issue for him. My mother said no one could ever bring it up." She frowned. "It's….you know, it's really none of your business. My family, my grandfather has nothing to do with you."

"I'm afraid he does." He took a deep breath. "The children of my family fled to other realities, before the 'lost dimension', the void space was formed as a result of the Time War. The walls were sealed. At least two of them ended up in your universe and I was able to confirm, you are both my living descendants. The Time Lord TNA and physiology has been activated. The injections are to ease the transition over to-"

"No!" Cathryn let out a shriek. "You're lying! This is all a lie!" Without a thought, she lurched herself at the Time Lord causing him to drop the syringe in a startled reflex. She shoved him hard against the railing. "Liar! Take it back. What you said. Take it back right now!"

Bec only moments before had been frozen. He had used her very words against her, tricking them into an agreement. She was horrified. This was the last thing she ever expected to hear. Distantly, she remembered the Doctor smelling for her, detecting her behind the curtain. Now more than ever, she didn't want to see him. She felt so decisively trapped. _Will Pete's World still work if he can…_ she narrowed her eyes. What if it was a lie? She swallowed, remembered his motto. The rule he lived by. The Doctor always lies. Was this just a trick too?

She couldn't cope with this. She couldn't deal with his lies. She had to get away from them.

Bec turned without a word and walked out of the room.

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 **Authors' note:**

 **I neglected to mention in the authors' note of the last chapter, emptyvoices and I have been working on this story for a little while now. We have about half a dozen chapters completed, which I will upload every week until we catch up to where we're writing. After that, updates will slow down.**

 **In the meantime, please let us know what you think.**

 **And, thank you again to Almadynis Rayne, Fan Fictional Authoress and LovelyAmberLight for your help and support. We really appreciate you guys!**


	3. The Ties that Bind

**Chapter 3: The Ties that Bind**

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The Doctor had been surprised by Cathryn's outburst that he barely saw Rebecca leave the room out of the corner of his eye. _One thing at a time._ She couldn't leave the TARDIS and he could loop her path back to find him where ever he was. But Cathryn at the moment was driven by pure anger and shock at the news. So much so, she was lashing out by throwing various items at him uncontrollably.

Before another medical tray could be swung in his direction, he moved swiftly, seizing her wrist, while folding her arms across her chest, pulling her back to his front, while wrapping his own arms around her. He could feel her panic coming off of her in waves. "Cathryn, calm down." He took on a soothing tone that was slightly hypnotic as she thrashed. "Just try to relax and-"

"No!" She cried out. She was far too agitated. "Not until you take it back. Tell me you're lying. It's a trick! I want to go home! None of this is true. Take it back! Take it back right now!"

"I can't." His voice was soft. Dead. His son was… the news shook him. The pain of talking about his family, the Time War, people that were lost to him must have been too much for his son so his own child refused to speak of it. But his own great grandchildren were drawn back to him. He wasn't the last Time Lord anymore. "I can't Cathryn because it's not a lie."

It would have been simpler for her if her other story had been true. That they were just anomalies with a little Time Lord heritage that stretched back thousands of years. She always loved history and thought herself creative to use a storyline based on a true fable in her family line. Artron in her system she was prepared for. But not this. And he had so cruelly tricked them. Used his own knowledge against them so they would elect him as a medical proxy unaware.

She tried to pull away as he picked up the syringe. "No! I don't want it! I refuse any and all treatment given by you. Don't even think about it!"

"At the moment, you're incapable and unstable in making decisions regarding your own medical welfare so as your medical proxy, doctor and head of house, I have to act in both your well beings. These injections will allow your TNA and secondary organs as part of your Time Lord physiology while activated to integrate smoothly. The hormones-" he started.

"And when we go home?" she challenged him. "What then? Can it be reversed? Will we go back to normal?"

He didn't want to tell her the chances of her going home again were astronomically low. So minute, calculating the variables were hardly distinguishable. It was a bit of a miracle that they were here in the first place. Still, that wasn't her precise question.

"What happened can't be reversed," he told her calmly, knowing how much of a shock it would be, especially when she had grown up to be human. "I'm so sorry."

With that she put up an entirely new physical retaliation, fighting him with every ounce of strength she had, summoning new adrenaline despite the fact she had consumed little in the last few days. "I don't want it!" she shrieked aloud. "I want to be normal!" She was thinking of when Bec and herself would escape into Pete's World and waited for the dimensional canon to be completed, any 'treatments' the Doctor gave them might have permanent and lasting effects. Going home, how was she supposed to manage watching her entire family die around her? Her own father had cancer and she wasn't there. What he was subjecting her to was worse. A state of perpetual grief. His grief of losing everyone he ever loved.

In the meantime, her strength was gaining ground as she just managed to place her fingertips on the syringe as she struggled rather instead to jam it into his arm, instead of hers. He needed to act and it needed to be done quickly.

He could barely contain her continued thrashing so gently he made telepathic contact. " _Calm down, Cathryn._ " His words mesmerizing. " _You're alright. You just need to calm down."_

Her struggles right away began to still as he guided her back to the medbay bed. Tears only prickled out of her eyes as he prepared the syringe. Two were required each day and he had no choice but to ensure they received them. Tears continued steadily down her cheeks. She was exhausted and he knew malnourished, so he introduced micronutrients and a sedative with the biodata extract. Killing two birds with one stone. _What an interesting human phrase._ He thought. At least, the treatment he was providing to them both would allow them to overcome the withdraws of their prior medication they had both claimed to be taken. Anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications were not to be so readily dismissed and he had calculated such ramifications into the dosages he was given them so their withdrawals from those primitive remedies would be easily managed as they adjusted to the new treatment.

As that needle slid into her skin, she barely managed a whisper. "You're killing us." Her voice cracked. That very same tone. It reminded him of his own daughter when she had been ill. Stubborn. Often wanting to go her own way. All his children inherited a sense of wanderlust. But it devastated him that he thought they were lost to him forever. But here two had been returned. He would never let them go. In time, he hoped they might come to see him as family. As the father he had meant to be to his children. Perhaps he had failed them, but he wouldn't fail Cathryn and Rebecca.

Those were Cathryn's last words before the sedative took hold and he managed to catch her as she fell into a deep sleep. The business of her injections out of the way, he decided to take her back to her room. Entering inside, the room, which once seemed cheerful in tones of whites and light blues, a change had occurred. Now, it had taken on forest green tones with navy colors. Her shelves were empty and outside the window, the scene was bleak showing unceasing torrents of rain coming down without fail. Placing her gently on the mattress while pulling the covers over her, he examined the environment. At the side of her bed was a half written note to her father telling him how important he was to her and not to give up fighting the disease. His hearts felt heavy at reading it. He replaced it back on the bed. A journal he thumbed through indicating each broken moment. Her first line stood out in particular. _'I don't think I can do this….'_ Obviously, the girl loved her family deeply and was intensely loyal to them. It was only when he opened the jewelry box that he found a charm bracelet, slightly weathered by time. One charm standing out in particular. A silver figurine of a boat with an engraving. _'To C.S. from C.H with all my love.'_ He recognised the writing right away. His son. This was his heirloom he passed down to her. A ship in the image of a cruise liner. That sense of wanderlust. He shook his head, as a mournful expression crossed his face before placing the trinket back to where it stood.

He needed to speak to Rebecca and when Cathryn was calmer, try to talk to her again. The injections of Time Lord hormones would bring their bodies back into alignment. A second dose and after Cathryn woke, she should be calmer. At least he hoped so.

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Bec paced indiscriminately through the hallways, ignoring any door she passed. Twice she ended up at the console room, but she turned about without even entering the cavernous chamber.

"Rebecca," a voice interrupted her from just ahead.

She stopped and looked up to see the Doctor standing in her path. "No," she told the man coldly, refusing him. She turned her back and walked away, only he met her pace and walked at her side, albeit at a slight distance.

"Your mother's mother," he began deliberately.

"Is still alive," Bec cut him off. Had she been looking at him she'd have seen the way his eyes flashed and his chin lifted at this revelation. "Go pick her up and drop us off. We don't want to be here, though I doubt she would either. Now, I'm cross, so _back off_!"

"I can't do that," he told her firmly.

Bec was seething inside even as she tried to bottle it down. She knew from experience that it was always better for her to run away from a fight. She couldn't even remember some of the things she said to her parents in her anger as a teenager, only that it took weeks, sometimes months, to heal the damage afterwards. Even with her husband she had some satisfyingly choice comments she could make, words chosen to deliberately hurt, but she had learned to always, wisely, hold them back. She needed no such restraint against the Doctor, she decided. If he wasn't going to back down she would aim to make him hurt as much as she could.

She stopped and faced him, her voice as venomous as she could manage. " _We_ are _not_ your _family_ ," she declared, her voice low and cold. "You _killed_ your family. You murdered them when you _wiped out_ your own people. You are _nothing_. You are _alone_. And we want _no_ part of you."

His expression was openly shocked and hurt. Was this simply ancestral memory, or something she had been told by his daughter, or was it something else entirely? His own face fell into a mask of anger at her judgment on him. She had no understanding and no right to condemn him like she did.

"Don't speak about things you don't understand," he warned her darkly.

"Who says we don't understand? _You_ are the one with no idea. If you knew better you'd know to leave us alone," she countered, thinking to herself how dangerous it was for him to hold captive two people who knew his future so expansively, two people who were _not_ supposed to be in his future. _The_ damage _it could do…_ She turned to storm away from him, but once again he stayed right at her side.

"So you're not getting your way, so you're just going to throw a tantrum, is that it?"

"Oh, believe me, mister: I can throw a tantrum to put my kids to shame."

Again, she wasn't watching him to see the way he winced at her words, this time in response to her suffering. From his preliminary scans he already suspected she must have had children, but hearing it confirmed reminded him that she was only lashing out at him out of her own pain. He deliberately pulled the reigns on his own anger and changed his tactics slightly.

"I know this isn't what you want, but I'm only trying to help," he told her, his voice calm. She shot him a glare and he could see she was frustrated that he wasn't letting her get to him anymore. "You're body chemistry is modifying rapidly to acclimatise to your presence in this universe and this is going to have side effects on your physical and mental state. I can ease the transition, but you have to let me help you."

"No, I want a second opinion," she told him impudently.

He closed his eyes for a moment to center himself, not allowing her to get a rise out of him. "There is no one else who understands this like I do."

"I'm sure my _Granny_ does," the young woman challenged scathingly as though she believed nothing of the sort. "How about we ask her,"

"Believe me, if I could get us to your universe I'd have done so already."

She stopped where she stood and turned on him as threateningly as any mother could. "You stay _away_ from my family!" she growled, her lip twisting and her eyes flashing.

"I _am_ your family," he asserted in the same tone.

"No." She turned and started walking away again. "Genetics doesn't make a family. Besides, ' _The Doctor lies_.'"

Despite his determination to not let her get to him, she still managed to rankle him. "So you're just going to run away from this and sulk?"

"Yeah, pretty much," she answered, her voice pleasantly jovial. Her response irritated him, as he knew she intended.

He saw a slight sagging of her posture even as she continued to pace, and her weary voice reached out to him. "Look, I'm cross. Just go away, would you? Just for now, just go away." He heard the concession in her voice, as though if he let her settle down she might be less resistant. However, he also heard the underlying defeat, as though she only fought with him because she felt truly and utterly lost and powerless.

He paused and allowed her to pull away. Even he could do with a few minutes to calm himself after that fiery exchange. She still needed that injection, but a few minutes respite would likely help more than hinder.

Bec had fled needing somewhere to hide from the world, from _his_ world. The anger she held tightly around her was beginning to crumble away and she didn't want to appear weak, especially in front of her enemy. She knew she couldn't hide from him, but she sought that illusion anyway, finding somewhere dark and small to secrete herself. She gathered her knees to her chest and shook as she sat on the floor, unable to restrain her despairing sobs any longer.

She'd had her heart broken before, when she'd lost her daughter. She'd once believed the phrase was simply a metaphor for the pain of loss, but she had learned firsthand that a broken heart was a physical sensation, like she had to clutch her chest to stop it from ripping open. That pain filled her again, and she imagined it was her sons not her knees that she clung to so desperately, but no matter how she tried to wish the world away, it stubbornly remained to torment her.

The Doctor allowed her half an hour before he sought Bec out again, allowing the TARDIS to guide him to her location.

He walked into the library and frowned. The lights were far dimmer than they usually were, and the corners of the room didn't seem to be lit at all. He heard a soft sound, and his head turned towards one of the dark corners. _Was that Bec_?

He silently approached and found the girl in question huddled in a little nook between a lounge and the wall, her knees to her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs as she sobbed quietly to herself. His hearts went out to her finding her so broken.

He knelt in front of her and gently placed his hand on her elbow. "Bec," he said gently, but she shook her head into her knees and cringed away from him.

"Just go away," she whispered.

He sighed, and with a simple command, put her to sleep. He knew her fragile state was a combination of anger, grief and shock at being taken from her home and trapped with him, as well as the imbalance of her adjusting hormones within her. She needed that injection whether she wanted it or not.

He carefully lifted her and carried her back to her room. His eyebrows furrowed slightly at the sight of it. Before it had seemingly been a replica of her room at home, complete with the assortment of trinkets and paraphernalia that had cluttered every surface. Now the room was a blank slate. All the shelves were empty apart from essentials that she might require. The whole room gave him the vibe of transient, even though he knew her stay with him would be anything but. The only signs that remained of her previous room were a large cardboard box by the door that seemed to hold all the items that had once been on shelves, and a guitar that sat in the corner by her bed. He grimaced at the room, because it showed more than anything else just how much she wanted to be away from him. Rather than offering her homely comfort, his TARDIS was giving her the illusion that she wouldn't have to stay, while still hinting at the permanence of her new home with the box of assortments for her to unpack.

He carefully settled her on her bed and pulled the syringe out of his pocket, giving her the injection while she slept.

A tiny flash of colour by her pillow caught his eye, and he reached under it to feel a glossy card which he then pulled out. On the page, two blonde little boys smiled up at him as they hugged and played. He smiled sadly down at them. Rebecca's children. His own blood. In a world out there, his family lived and flourished, but, apart from Rebecca and Cathryn, they were beyond his reach. As soon as he had recognised the two he had searched for a way back to their home, and he had quickly found the scar left by the tear they had somehow fallen through, but the rift had been too unstable to support another transfer between worlds. Had he attempted the trip, both universes would have fallen into the void, so instead he healed the crack and comforted himself with the knowledge that his family had survived in some form, and that two of them were now with him, albeit reluctantly.

He slipped the picture back under Bec's pillow and sighed as he looked down on her. Already he could start to feel the occasional flutter of their presence at the edge of his awareness. He knew this would only grow as their previously dormant heritage took hold and that he needed to prepare them for what was coming.

He carefully tucked the sleeping woman in and brushed the hair from her face, actions reminiscent of what he'd done for his own children when they were infants, then he quietly slipped from the room to seek his other granddaughter. Cathryn had had two injections now, and he hoped she would be in a more stable state of mind to listen to him.

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"Where is Bec?" Cathryn asked wearily. It was hours later. She was sitting in the library, trying to concentrate on a book she could barely focus on. She still had no desire to talk to the Time Lord in front of her.

"She was exhausted, Cathryn," he said. "I took her back to her room."

"Exhausted, or you put her to sleep." She stared at him.

"In another few moments, she would have drifted off regardless. The medications she was on previously…." He paused. "I had to intervene." He pressed his lips together. "I intend to help you both with those."

"Really?" Cathryn challenged. "Help Rebecca. Help me. That seems to be your default answer for everything, We were just fine before." Cathryn muttered. "Is this what you did to your family? Your children? They cause too much trouble. You knock them out as well?"

"Of course not," the Doctor defended himself. "I know there is a lot for you to take in and it's a shock. It's traumatic. Regardless of what you might think, I don't enjoy doing it."

"But it's so much easier isn't it? You and your telepathy. Getting people to do what you want," Cathryn muttered.

"In emergencies," he emphasized as he gave the matter some thought. "I could teach you and Rebecca telepathy. How to use it. Put up shields in your mind. Everything that I do."

"Why? What's the point?" Cathryn muttered.

"We're family, Cathryn," he said. "I know this is difficult, but I really do want to help. There are other things that will occur you may not anticipate."

"Such as?"

"Time sensitivity for one," he explained.

Cathryn frowned. She heard this term but in 'Lost in Reality'. But she also read about it in Doctor Who canon. Which meaning was he referring to? "You mean seeing the future?"

"No. That is not time sensitivity. That is precognition. You'll be able to sense other time travelers, myself included." He started to wonder where she was getting these skewed ideas. "You'll be able to speed read, your hearing will increase, I can even teach you both how to use a sonic and…."

That perked her interest. "The sonic. You would actually show us?"

Maybe he was getting somewhere. "Of course I would. You are my family. Part of my legacy. I want to eventually teach you everything I know." He nodded towards her. "Step by step." He emphasized. "I can also show you how to read Gallifreyan."

He was continuing to ramble but Cathryn was thinking. Maybe it wasn't so bleak after all. They didn't have long before entering Pete's World and the injections he forced on them between now and then couldn't be that many. If he started teaching them the sonic and gave them their own, that was one thing they wouldn't have to worry about. All they would need is to find psychic paper. _A deal,_ she reminded herself. That was their premise when they led him on a merry chase throughout Paris.

She glanced at Bec who had just entered the room and nodded towards her giving her a look that she hoped the girl would understand. "Maybe…." Cathryn started. "Maybe we can reach some kind of bargain." She couldn't make it too easy. "Teach us a little bit for now. Tell us about our grandparents and the sonic." She swallowed. "Let us start there. Have time to practice. Then…." She gave an expressive sigh. "Then, maybe we can think about the telepathy." She paused. "If only to know what our family was like."

The Doctor couldn't help but smile. He was finally making an improvement, albeit a small one. He didn't see Bec's small smirk she managed to hide at Cathryn's quick thinking in sticking to the plan. They just might have a chance after all.

The Doctor slowly withdrew a sonic and held it in his open palm for them to see. "I seem to recall you stealing this from me when you were running away," he said to Cathryn, giving her a look, even as his lips twitched, pleased as he was that their curiosity was drawing them in.

Cathryn shrugged unapologetically. "You were using it to chase us. What did you expect?"

He nodded, seeing the wisdom of her action from their perspective. "You also managed to use it on a cashpoint," he reminded her. "How did you know how to use it?"

The young woman shrugged again and glanced back at Rebecca who returned the gesture. "I just thought about what I wanted and pressed the buttons," she admitted.

He nodded again, proud that they had been able to instinctively recognise the screwdriver's inherent psychic functions. "Well, that is one way to do it, I guess, but that's a bit like using the automatic channel search on an analogue television. It would scroll through all the channels until it finds a frequency that it can lock onto, whether it's the channel you wanted or not. It'll do the job - you'd be able to watch the telly - but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the best channel for the job, say, if you wanted to watch cartoons instead of the news." He watched the way Cathryn leaned in slightly as he explained and Bec slowly stepped closer.

"It's most effective if you can use the correct setting for a specific job, and even then you should be aware of the other uses a particular setting may have. For example," he looked at Bec, hoping to draw her in further. "There's a setting that is absolutely brilliant for tuning the D string on guitars, but I wouldn't generally recommend using it as it could also cause the processor of most twenty-first century computers to fail catastrophically. It won't be until nearly the end of the century before adequate sonic shielding is added as a standard feature for you to be able to tune your guitar with peace of mind."

"Did you want to have a look?" he asked, offering the device to her in response to her evident curiosity. She glanced up at him sharply. Her emotions were mostly hidden, but he could see the wariness she still held towards him in her eyes.

Bec carefully reached out and took the sonic, making sure not to actually touch his hand. She frowned slightly as she had her first close look at a real sonic screwdriver. It was far heavier than she had expected for it's size, but not uncomfortably so. She was still able to bounce it easily in her grip once she'd adjusted herself to the unexpected weight. On the toy sonic screwdrivers she'd seen in the shops at home, there was usually only one large button to turn the light and sound on and off. On the true screwdriver, while there was that one larger button that matched the one of the replicas, there were also four tiny dials, each barely 2 millimeters wide and with low prongs on them like gears, and a few small indent-like buttons below them, within reach easy of a wielding thumb. However, she could find no distinguishing marks to help her set the screwdriver to a particular frequency.

"There are a few thousand different functions. I keep adding more when I get around to it," he said with a sniff. "You use the dials to set the initial frequency. Each turn has a particular number assigned to it. Eee, weeell, not exactly, but that's close enough for now. Each of these buttons tunes the set frequency within a particular wavelength band and then you press this," he indicated the most prominent button, "to activate the device."

"But there's no writing. How do you know you're using the right setting?" Bec asked.

"Weeell, try setting it for 384B," the Doctor suggested.

Bec glanced up at him again, her eyebrows furrowed slightly, but then she quickly slid her thumb over the settings to correctly tune the device.

"That's one of the telepathic functions. So long as you know what setting you want, you will always get it right. That setting," he nodded towards her hand, "is very good for making popcorn." He smiled to himself the way they both leaned in to study the screwdriver.

"Sometimes, you need a little less precision, or more precision, depending on how you want to think of it," he continued to his eager audience. "Say, when you're using it on a computer. If you only used a single setting, you won't be able to do much with something as complicated as a computer, but, again, the telepathic function enables you to quickly and easily utilize the other computer related functions in the thousand or so nearby settings, to scroll through them telepathically like that analogue TV tuner rather than having to adjust the buttons and dials at every moment, so you can easily manipulate the software to seek the information or implement the program that you want."

"It has lots of other functions of course. Scanning and healing, as you've seen, but you can also use it for things like unlocking doors and cooking sausages. Doesn't work on wood yet though..."

"Sausages?" Cathryn asked incredulously. Surely he must be joking.

"Weeell-" He scratched the back of his head in a familiar gesture "-I say 'cooking sausages'... What is heat but the excitation of an object at the atomic level? The sonic waves can stimulate this excitation to create heat or fire, or even slow it to cool an object down." He grimaced. "The last time I tried it on sausages, though, they may have exploded… a bit."

As he'd intended, both of the girls barked with laughter at his bogus mishap, and he grinned along with them. Bec considered the ice lady he would one day make explode. Was this how he did it?

"May I..?" Cathryn asked holding out her hand, and Bec passed her the device.

She didn't want to give herself away. Better start with innocuous questions. She examined the device carefully. "I'm curious," Cathryn started. "Using the healing function to scan or diagnose someone. How does that work?"

He smiled. "Interested in healing, eh?" He cleared his throat. "Right. Well, adjust the setting to 224A."

Cathryn slowly turned the dials not wanting to chance damaging the device. She attempted the very same practice with the setting clearly in her mind for the device to lock on accurately.

"Don't worry," he said. "You're not going to break it. Plus the TARDIS makes more. Consider these your practice versions." He wasn't really worried. He had already taken care to set the additional security protocol so the girls wouldn't be running out of the TARDIS without his supervision. These sonics would be unable to break the deadlock seals. But Cathryn's interest in healing demonstrated that she took a bit after him after all.

"Now scan Rebecca with that setting." Cathryn complied, surprised to see all of Bec's vital signs and other numbers appear on the surface of the metal layered in 3D style topography. "You see," he continued. "The red numbers give heart rate, green blood pressure, pink electrolyte levels, purple metabolic rate and so on. If any of those were below normal, the numbers themselves would appear in black. Dark blue is borderline. You see?" He asked. "Her pulse, heart rate and electrolyte levels are a tad low." He glanced at his other granddaughter. "Something I need to watch." He was taking a mental note.

 _Borderline?_ Cathryn frowned at Bec while the other girl grimaced then shrugged dismissively.

"So, that's the only diagnostic scan, then?" Cathryn asked looking back down at the device in her hand.

"Usually. You need the medbay for a more in depth analysis," he answered. "Now do a scan on yourself," he instructed. Cathryn did but glowered at the device. Was it not working? "Some of my numbers are in black."

"Your resting heart rate is lower then average and electrolyte levels are not within normal parameters."

"But…." Cathryn decided to give the device a brief shake. She didn't like the accusation and was annoyed at this variation of a high tech thermometer.

"Oi!" he exclaimed. "Stop that. I am treating the problem." Her injections included micronutrients as well to boost her electrolyte levels back to normal, but he sighed rubbing his forehead. _Humans._ Briefly, he was reminded of Jackie Tyler shaking one appliance or another in order to get it to function. Inevitably, it usually made it worse. "This is a tool. Not a toy. You still have to treat it with care."

Cathryn gave him a petulant look but ceased the activity. "But how do I heal an injury?" she asked. "Like a cut for example." She knew the sonic was capable of the feat from the show when the eleventh Doctor did precisely the same thing.

"Weeell, a bit harder to show since neither of you have one in the first place, we can't exactly-"

"Oh, no problem." She took a box cutter out of her pocket that was given to her from her job years prior, pressing a button to extend the blade. She had cut herself multiple times before but only by accident. This would be the first time she did it purposefully but she wanted to learn as much about the device as she could.

"Cathryn!" he exclaimed with chagrin. She had managed to cut herself just above her elbow. "That is not what I had in mind." _She takes right after him. Sometimes, he didn't think either. He just did._ He was thinking of his son. How stubborn he was. Maybe the two girls could tell him more about his children and what their lives were like in that dimension. How it was starting over. Having a family. Did they have siblings? Cathryn didn't have children but she had a niece. His great-great granddaughter. The charm bracelet he saw. A cruise liner. He smiled to himself. Did his son actually work on a ship?

"So, could you show me how to heal?" Cathryn asked, pulling him from his thoughts and the Doctor blinked turning his attention back to her. "Next setting 224B. Sonic waves will stop the bleeding and knit the flesh back together."

Cathryn looked at the procedure with amazement while Bec still had a question on her mind. One that had to be addressed carefully. "So, we obtained money from that ATM; you can use it on computers as well?" She couldn't come out and say, show us how to load a prepaid credit card. A round about route was their best option.

He handed her a second sonic. This was actually an exciting moment and he already had the two instruments prepared for them. Soon, he could start instructing them about the rules of time. How to navigate on the TARDIS. This was their inheritance. He bounded upwards, gesturing to the two girls. "Ohhh, that's the fun part. Follow me."

xxxxxxxxxx

A few hours later, found them in the console room as he was talking them through a maintenance check of the light accelerator used in conjunction for the laser trigger when dematerializing the TARDIS.

"Right," he told Rebecca as she slowly maneuvered the sonic that was in her palm. "Be very careful to maneuver the amulator so the spin of the subneutronic packets are turning anti clockwise to inside out."

Bec frowned in concentration. He had explained some of this before but it was still a bit difficult to understand. In fact, she grumbled to herself, she was sure he just made up words as he went along. At least he demonstrated the technique so she could imitate the procedure.

"Cathryn," he started. "How is the modulation of the quantum-depolarized frabjastanic couplings coming along?"

 _Oh, is that what those things are called again,_ Cathryn thought. Adjusting each circuit one by one, well, it was downright…."Tedious," she said aloud. "How does any of this help? What is the point?"

"The point is that it's the only way to enter the vortex and slip through the cracks from one moment in time and the next," he said. "Without getting stuck there," the Doctor instructed.

Cathryn let out a sigh but continued the work. Of course, she didn't want to get stuck in the vortex indefinitely. Neither did Bec. But this work was so very gritty.

"Am I interruptin'?" Rose asked. "Thought maybe you all could use a break and a cuppa."

 _What a lifesaver,_ Cathryn thought and Bec stopped what she was doing. They both shared a love for tea.

"Thank you, Rose," Cathryn said. "Saved me from insanity." She rubbed her temple with one hand feeling a headache coming on while Bec took a mug with a smile towards the companion, simply breathing in the spicy aroma.

The Doctor simply observed. It was curious to note. Despite their trepidation around him, they both seemed to take immediately to his blond passenger, treating her with immediate respect and almost reverence. He wondered if it was telling about Rose. But then, he already knew there was something special about the girl deep in his hearts.

"My pleasure." Rose offered them a grin. "Not much into going to class myself." She frowned briefly. "Course, had to drop out to help Mum at home." She paused. "Well, that is, until the Doctor here blew up the store."

"Better the store, than your entire world," the Doctor defended.

"Same old excuse," Rose teased, momentarily poking her tongue between her teeth.

Cathryn took a deep breath. She was thinking and it made her pensive. Rose voluntarily left her mother behind and she knew she would make the same decision again to stay with the Doctor without a pause. Jackie Tyler and the Doctor didn't exactly see eye to eye but Rose was her only child. How much did it break her heart when Rose disappeared for a year? _She probably thought Rose was dead or maybe even taken as part of a human trafficking ring._ Rose was only nineteen. How could she not think of the pain she put her mother through especially after Jackie endured the loss of her husband so suddenly? _No chance to even say good-bye._ Cathryn swallowed.

"Rose," Cathryn started.

"Yeah?" The blonde turned to her. "What is it?"

"Don't you ever miss your mother?"

 _What kind of question is that?_ "Course I do," Rose answered instantly. "Why wouldn't I?"

"But you told the Doctor you wouldn't leave him."

"Doesn't mean I don't miss my Mum or don't love her," the blonde said in confusion.

"But one year," Cathryn said. "You were gone for an entire year and left again." She took a deep breath. "Do you have any idea what she suffered? Each night, trying to go to sleep? The guilt? Probably blaming herself? All those 'what ifs'? And you were just gone?"

"Cathryn," Bec said warningly. These were things they shouldn't know, that they hadn't been told yet. Also, as much as she tried to push the thoughts away, thinking of the year Jackie was alone made her think of her own children who were so far away. She swallowed back the pain. Her children, her husband, her parents, her brothers, everyone she'd ever known were now beyond her reach. "Not now." She set her mug down beside her feet and brushed imaginary dust off her jeans.

"I never meant for it to 'appen like that," Rose defended. "It was an accident. The Doctor would have fixed it but-"

"But now you won't ever leave him," Cathryn said pointedly. "What if she was dying?" She was thinking about her father. "Her only child won't return to be with her."

"Now, hold on." Rose's face was suffused in anger. "She's my Mum and you have no right to-"

"My father is dying, Rose," Cathryn spat out. "And my mother is going to be all alone. You think I have nothing to compare it to?"

Rose simply froze and her eyes widened.

"And I'm trapped here. I can't choose to come and go like you can." Cathryn's voice was bitter.

"'M sorry," Rose said finally. Maybe she should visit her mother more often. Maybe saying 'never' was a bit too long. She remembered how upset, how hurt her mother was when she returned to see her after the adventure in nineteenth century Wales. She also remembered the visible pain on her mother's expression when she decided to continue travelling with the Doctor. "I…you're right. We could all visit her. Didn't think about it."

"You should." The words just came out. "Before jumping into a telephone box of some alien you barely met fresh from the Time War."

"Oi! Now wait a sec!" The Doctor appeared indignant.

"Cathryn." It was Bec again. "Why don't we go to the library and just talk?"

"How come you didn't try to save anyone when you killed Gallifrey?" asked Cathryn.

The Doctor stiffened.

"Who's Gallifrey?" asked Rose, looking at Cathryn.

Rebecca choked in surprise, but didn't say a word. She knew Rose needed to continue to admire the Doctor, so she kept her mouth shut and gave Cathryn a warning look. _What was she doing?_

"Yeah, who's Gallifrey?" Mickey chimed in, having just entered the room. What had he just walked into?

"No one," Rebecca tried to end the conversation. "Cathryn, let it go."

" _No one?!_ " she countered. "He intentionally murdered two point five billion children, and you say that's no one?!"

"No, I just said let it go." She moved closer to Cathryn and brought her voice low. "Cathryn, you need to stop."

"I won't," Cathryn hissed back. "He's no hero. And you and I both know what he..."

"What do you think he'll do to us, if you piss him off?" she shouted her whisper. She lowered her voice even more, hoping it was too quiet for the alien to hear. "Remember how he tried to telepathically hallow out Lilly's mind after Cassandra? The Final Action?" she hissed, thinking of when the ninth Doctor was going to destroy Lilly's mind in the fanfiction they'd read. If he realized what they knew, would he do the same to them?

Cathryn stilled her movement as a shiver of fear ran up her spine. Bec was right. This wasn't a TV show anymore. This wasn't a story.

"What's murder to someone guilty of genocide?" she whispered to herself. Or worse, what else might he be willing to do? Was the Final Action real? But how could she stand by and say nothing?

The Time Lord cleared his throat. And the two girls turned to look at him. He looked grim. He looked nearly sick. They knew, he realized. How could they know what he'd done to Gallifrey. Had his children told them? Was it ancestral memory? Or was it something else? And who was Lilly? What did they think he'd done to her?

"Doctor?" questioned Rose.

He glanced at her. "Gallifrey was my home," he answered her. "My planet. That's what it was called." He turned back to his girls. "I tried," he said. "I tried everything," he explained. "I couldn't..."

"No," Cathryn countered. "You were on Gallifrey in Arcadia just before you blew it up." For some reason she couldn't keep her mouth shut.

" _Cathryn, shut up!_ " Bec whispered hoarsely, but she went unheeded.

"You blew up your own planet?" asked Mickey.

"You could have evacuated..." Cathryn started.

"There wasn't enough time to get everyone to..."

"You didn't have to save everyone," she continued. "You could have saved more than just yourself."

"There was no choice," the Doctor explained. "I only had a certain amount of time."

 _No, but there was time to walk a million miles from your TARDIS so she didn't see you use the Moment_ , Bec thought bitterly, but she deliberately bit the comment back. Cathryn was already risking too much without her adding to the mix herself.

"No choice?" Cathryn repeated. "There's always a choice," she quoted what the tenth Doctor said to Jenny, his daughter on the show. "You have a time machine! You could have saved someone! You SHOULD have saved someone. Anyone! But no. You just..."

"I saved _you_!"

Everyone in the room froze.

"Wh...What?" Bec piped up, her voice bewildered.

"I saved you, both of you," the Doctor repeated softly. "Your grandparents, my children," he began.

"Wha'?" questioned Rose. She hadn't been with them earlier when the Doctor had explained things to the girls. So she hadn't realized the Doctor had been a father.

"You had kids!" Mickey spoke up. "You're a dad?!"

"They lived in Arcadia, and I couldn't..." The Doctor swallowed. "That's why I was there." The Doctor ignored Mickey's comment. He grimaced. "I was saving my children."

"While killing everyone else's," Cathryn finished.

The Time Lord stared at her. "Yes," he finally answered, looking his great granddaughter in the eyes. "But you'll never have to be afraid of me. Not you." There was a long minute where no one spoke. No one said anything.

"You're a monster," Cathryn accused.

"Hold on." Rose stepped forward. "Maybe I'm just the stupid ape here, but which is it? Are you angry with him for saving people, or NOT saving people. 'Cause from where I'm standin', sounds like you can't make up your mind, yeah." She put her hands on her hips. "And if you're angry 'cause he saved HIS kids instead of someone else's..." She reached out, and slid her hand into the Doctor's. "What kind of man wouldn't try to save his own kids?"

She looked up at the Doctor, and he melted as he looked back down at her. _I'm so glad I met you_ , he thought.

Rose looked back at Cathryn. "Sounds to me like you're just lookin' for a reason to be angry. If he says there was no choice, then that's how it was."

"Oh!" The Doctor released Rose's hand, and smacked his forehead. "Hormone adjustment," he stated. "Rose, what would I do without you?"

Not only did she have complete faith in him, but more often than not she knew exactly the right thing to say. He whipped out his sonic screwdriver.

"Cathryn, you're not really angry with me. Well. Maybe you are. But you're feeling the way you are cause... Well..." He scanned her. "Time Lord hormones can be a little intense." He looked at the readings. "Yup. Ooo. Would you look at that?" He nodded his head. "Hmm. Might need to..." He cleared his throat. "Anyway... Seems like you were already upset about something. And the new hormones are amplifying those emotions."

Cathryn shook her head. "You're a liar," she accused.

"Cathryn!" Bec tried.

"You know I'm right," she answered. "If he really wanted to save Gallifrey, he would have trapped it in a pocket universe like Time Lord art, and let the Daleks destroy..."

Bec reached out, and covered Cathryn's mouth as fast as she could, knocking Cathryn's tea from her grasp.

"What's wrong with you?" she hissed.

Cathryn's eyes were wide. "I don't know," she mouthed under Bec's hand. Cathryn was scared. This wasn't like her. This wasn't normal. Yes. She was the kind of person who stood up for what was right. And she knew how to speak her mind. But this wasn't like her, this was wrong.

"Cathryn," the Doctor spoke up. "I'm going to give you another shot," he told her, moving slowly toward the girls. He held his hands up in a placating gesture, and moved toward her like she was a wounded animal. "It will help you feel normal again. Alright?"

Cathryn turned to bolt, but the Doctor had ahold of her wrist before she could blink.

"No!" she screamed, but a moment later the needle was in her vein.

The Doctor removed the syringe, and caressed the wound with his thumb while still holding her wrist.

"It's alright, Cathryn." He sent soothing telepathic emotions toward her. "Just give it a few seconds."

She tried to pull away.

"Twelve more seconds. Nine, eight, seven," he counted down. "...one, zero," he finished, and released her hand.

"Cathryn?" Bec questioned nervously.

Cathryn stood very still, anger still surging through her. How dare he forcibly medicate her again! How dare he telepathically manipulate her! How dare he invade her personal space!

The Doctor stepped back.

How dare he make her say... What had she said? Oh, no. Did she damage the Doctor's timeline? Did she create a paradox?

Bec looked at Cathryn with all the weight of the universe on her shoulders. What had happened to her? Was it a side effect of what the Doctor was doing to them? Would it happen to her too? What if she told him something he shouldn't know? What if Cathryn already had? What if she'd just destroyed the Gallifrey's chances of being saved? What if...?

"About Gallifrey," Cathryn broke the silence. She needed to fix what she'd just done. She might not like the Doctor. And she hated his methods. But she wasn't an idiot. It was time for damage control.

"Just forget what she said," Bec spoke up.

"Like you said," Cathryn continued. "I wasn't feeling well. I didn't mean it."

"Didn't you." It wasn't a question. The Doctor looked at his granddaughter. Had the solution to saving Gallifrey really been so simple? Had he been so stuck in a war mindset that he couldn't see the obvious? Had he subconsciously wanted to destroy his people, because he was so sick of their war? Maybe he was a monster. The Time Lord felt his throat close off. He felt one heart skip a beat. And the alien engaged his respiratory bypass. Maybe he deserved…

"Doctor?" It was Rose. "It wasn't your fault, yeah." She put her hand on his arm. "I know you. If you could have..."

He looked down at her, took in a shuddered breath.

"Right," he answered her, grateful how her comment made breathing possible again. He moved to his console, and everyone watched him begin typing furiously.

Mickey moved closer to Rose. "How much can you trust someone who did something like that, Rose?" He whispered to her. "You can do better than him."

"Mickey?"

"Yeah, Rose?"

"Shut up."

"Okaaaaay," the Doctor made everyone jump. "I've run the numbers." He looked at the girls. "There were too many time locks in place at the time for your idea to have worked, Cathryn. And I time locked the entire war. Not even I can undo that. Good idea though." He looked at Rose, and smiled. She never doubted him... Even now, when he'd doubted himself, she believed. She made him want to be better.

"That's why the TARDIS didn't bring it up as an option during the war."

"But that's..." Bec stopped short, not finishing her sentence. _Bad Wolf_ , she thought. Bad Wolf broke the time locks so the thirteen Doctors could save his world.

The Doctor turned back to the console, adjusting controls.

Bec turned to face Cathryn. Their eyes met.

"Bad Wolf," she mouthed to Cathryn.

Cathryn nodded. And the Doctor watched the exchange in the reflective metal on his console. Bad Wolf? It was obvious his girls were trying to keep something from him. And it was even more obvious he needed to start training them. Oh, they weren't going to like that. No Time Lord did. It was a life of duty and control. With their human genetics added into the mix, this was going to be difficult.

He glanced at Rose. Was there anything she wouldn't do for him? She was so human. _Bad Wolf_ , he thought again, shifting his thoughts back to his girls' exchange. Maybe he'd better check on that time lock, make sure everything is still secure. But first - he glanced over at Bec and surreptitiously scanned her as well. She received her last injection slightly more recently than Cathryn had, but her levels were beginning to rise as well. Best to get the unhappy business out of the way…

"Bec," he called turning back around.

"Rebecca," the girl corrected him stubbornly.

He nodded. "Rebecca," he acceded. "You need an injection too."

"No," she declared, her voice wavering slightly, and she slowly began backing away from him. "I don't want it."

"Rebecca, I'm sorry, but you need this injection or your emotional state will deteriorate just like Cathryn's did."

"No!" she repeated coldly. "Don't do this. I don't want to be like you. Give it to Rose. You know she'd jump at the chance to be a Time Lord and stay with you forever. I don't want it!"

"I'm not turning you into anything," he assured her calmly. "This is what you are. I'm just trying to help."

"So then what?" she asked, her words low and furious. "I'll watch my children die of old age while I stay young forever?" She shook her head as she took another step away. "If you wanted to help, you'd stop this, or reverse it, or whatever. You'd find us a way home."

"Believe me when I tell you I'm looking," he promised. "But I can't stop this. I can only make it easier."

She slowly backed up until she hit the rail behind her, then she froze in place. She could run and fight and resist as Cathryn had, but even then he had still won. Better to concede the battle but win the war. Once they reached Pete's world they would be able to escape and he'd never touch them again.

She fixed him with her most hate filled glare as he approached, then she turned her face away and ignored him, even as he slipped the needle into the crook of her arm.

He watched as her hand hanging beside her clenched and unclenched, a sign of someone who didn't like needles and had developed a coping mechanism for them. He was relieved he didn't have to physically force her as he did Cathryn, but he could see from the way her cold anger was set upon her face that even this was another way of her expressing her defiance of him.

"See? All done," he said with a hint of cheer to his voice as he carefully backed away again.

"But how can you do that?" Mickey piped up from the other side of the room. "How can you just drug them like that when they don't want it?"

The Doctor held back a sigh of frustration. "Mickey, can you just trust that I know what I'm doing?"

"But, how can you, though? What the hell are you giving them anyway?" the young man asked defensively.

Bec narrowed her eyes and looked back at the Time Lord. She hadn't even considered what might be in those syringes - an attempt to live in denial, she assumed.

The Doctor took in the way both Rebecca and Cathryn were staring at him, and he nodded to himself slowly. **"** It's an extraction based on the biodata, modified, especially from their DNA anointing them with steady increases of time energies while they are still initiates." He paused. "You see, this alters the initiate's DNA slowly creating symbiotic nucleotides, weeell, a fourth helix of DNA if you will and the other capabilities, making the Gallifreyan a Time Lord." He pursed his lips. "Time Lord abilities can also be slowly adjusted and regulated by adding to the subject's biodata through the use of injecting them with retro DNA serum in the form of red liquid." He paused. "You see, these hormones regulate the symbiotic nuclei, which will make them grow a larger brain and increase their frontal cortex making them time sensitive. Organs in the hypothalamus are already triggered allowing their Time Lord physiology to perceive higher dimensions by reciting just the right equations."

"Right. Makes perfect sense," Cathryn muttered sarcastically.

"Clear as mud," Bec agreed.

"Is this what it's like here?" Mickey asked, turning to Rose. "Do you really just sit around while his majesty lords it over us?"

Rose offered the young man her excited tongue in teeth grin. "I trus' the Doctor," she affirmed. "He know's what he's doing. And you jus' wait. You 'aven' seen anything yet!"

The Doctor nodded. That sounded like a good idea to him. Get out of the TARDIS for a while. Have an adventure to break the tension. Show his granddaughters how amazing the universe truly was. He glanced up at the two who were exchanging meaningful but silent glances again. Somewhere where they wouldn't try to run away again, he thought, except...

His mind drew back to that strange interference at the Louvre. He might have brushed it off with Mickey, but there was something familiar about those readings he had gotten and they left him feeling uneasy. But, much as he wished it were otherwise, he didn't trust Cathryn and Rebecca to not try to run away again. He felt he had made headway with them, but they were still very distrustful of him and reluctant to be passengers. But he also knew that the changes happening within them was physically exhausting for them, even if they didn't realize, which was one of the reasons why they, Cathryn especially with her malnutrition, needed so much sleep.

It had been a long afternoon, but he would keep them awake for another hour or so and then let them rest, taking the time while they slept to sort out whatever was happening at the museum. Perhaps they could have dinner together in the kitchen. It would be good if he could encourage Cathryn to have something to eat.

"Good idea, Rose," he agreed. "Tomorrow, we can go out and explore the universe. But first, how about we grab a bite to eat?" he offered all his companions, even as he gave a significant look to Cathryn.

"You know nothing about subtlety, do you?" Bec asked, seeing how Cathryn expression twisted in anger and remembering how the other Doctor dealt with Laura's appetite in the other universe. She wondered, and not for the first time, if those stories really were playing out in another universe somewhere, but, given what those women suffered, she hoped that wasn't the case. She frowned to herself – Laura had Time Lord heritage, but she certainly was not part of the Doctor's family. How could Cathryn and Laura be dimensional duplicates of each other if the differences between them were so great? (Assuming the Doctor was correct, of course, which he _wasn't_.) Unless they weren't duplicates but rather two people who were so similar that Cathryn had become aware of her story. That did make a bit of sense. There were a lot of similarities between herself and her own OC's as well.

She pulled her thoughts together and turned her back on the Time Lord, calling to her friend instead. "Let's go, don't waste your time on him."

He returned to the console as they left and ran his hand through his hair in frustration. All the headway they had made together and it was undone by their need for injections. At least he could hope that things would get better in the future.

"It'll be alright, yeah?" Rose told him leaning back against the console. "They'll come around."

The Doctor rubbed his face and headed back against the console, even as he tried to share in Rose's optimism.

"Why did you tell them about my mum?" Rose asked after a short lull. "I mean, I don't mind," she clarified at the Doctor's surprised glance. "I just didn't expect it, 's all."

The Doctor looked at his companion as his mind poured over her words. "Rose, I didn't say anything," he assured her seriously.

"Mickey!" Rose accused, turning on the other man in the room.

"Don't look at me," he replied holding up his hands defensively. "I only talked to Bec for a bit."

"And what did you talk about?" the Doctor pressed.

Mickey shrugged. "About whether Nintendo is better than Playstation."

The Doctor stood up straight and stared at the exit the two had taken, his mind racing at the paradigm shift in light of this new information.

"Doctor, what is it?" Rose asked in concern.

He could still feel the soft flutter of their developing minds just outside his awareness, and he was certain they hadn't brushed closely enough to him to pick up any of his own memories. Likewise, when he had intentionally entered the surface of their minds, his own shields had been secure to prevent them from receiving anymore than the words and emotions he projected to them.

"Time Lords can share memories across generations," he began after a moment. "Like, like genetic memory. A shared history." He turned to face Rose. "Have you told them anything about Bad Wolf?" he asked.

"No, why would I have?" Rose replied, confused.

He leaned back against the console once more, contemplating the implications of this revelation. He was already planning to speak with them regarding the awakening of their dormant ancestral knowledge as their awareness of the Time War implied was taking place, but if they were somehow picking up on events and information that they in their direct descent hadn't been privy to, it was imperative for him to determine the extent of their knowledge and ability and immediately begin training them accordingly. He ran his hand across the back of his neck in frustration as he considered how hard the task would be while they were so determinedly set against him. Cathryn's knowledge was obvious, her words in her inebriation exposing her. But Bec too, while she hadn't spoken out of turn herself, recognized everything Cathryn had said and knew to warn her to back down. Both of them displayed intimate knowledge that should not have been available to them.

"Doctor, what's wrong?" Rose repeated after he failed to answer the first time.

"No one told them about your mum," he said slowly. He looked up to watch the realization sink into his companions. "So how do they know?" When Mickey and Rose glanced at each other, he turned back to the hall again. "What else do they know?" he asked, pushing away from the console and following his girls into the ship.

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 **Authors' note:**

 **As always, thank you for reading! And special thanks to Almadynis Rayne and Fan Fictional Authoress for their support, to Christy-Flare from reminding us to consider their medicinal withdrawals, and LovelyAmberLight for her feedback and contributions. We appreciate you all so very much!**

 **In the meantime, we'd love to hear from you!**

 _ **azaadin & emptyvoices**_


	4. The Enemy Within

***Chapter 4: The Enemy Within**

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Bec led the way to a small kitchenette, intent on making herself another cup of tea. The drink Rose had given her was sitting back in the console room, barely touched, but she wasn't about to return for it.

She shook her head as she went about her task of preparing the two mugs for herself and Cathryn. The rage that flowed through her at the Time Lord was settling back to a weary despair. Even if they succeeded in escaping on Pete's World and found their way home it would only be a matter of time before they ended up as science experiments because of what he was doing to them. Either that or they'd spend most of their lives on the run, unable to even see their families lest it be discovered that they weren't entirely human anymore.

In her distraction, she poured the hot water from the jug over the edge of the mug and onto her hand. She hissed and dropped the cup in the sink, before running the burn under the cold tap.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say…" Cathryn shook her head. "I don't know what happened."

"It wasn't your fault," Bec assured her without turning around. "It was withdrawals from that stupid needle." She paused for a moment. "Maybe…" she glanced at the girl behind her. "What if we ask if we can give ourselves the needle, you know, like a diabetic does, then we just try to hide out until the withdrawals go away…" She shrugged, looking back at the tap. Even to her it sounded like a bad plan.

"It wouldn't work," the other girl sighed. "You know he won't let us avoid him for long, not if he thinks… And then he'd just scan us to see we hadn't taken it."

"Why is he doing this?" Cathryn lamented after a moment.

Bec had a few choice answers for that question, but she bit them all back. None of them would be helpful. "I don't know,' she finally answered softly. Even if he was right and they did have some sort of Time Lord heritage like Laura and Honor, surely he'd be able to come up with an injection that switches off that DNA rather than activating it.

Since joining her fanfiction community, she'd learned that there was more to the Doctor than the friendly, helpful alien he'd appeared on the show. She couldn't even watch the show anymore without seeing that darker side of him. However, she never thought he'd go so far as to force them to become like him so cruelly simply so he didn't have to be alone, especially while Rose was still with him. He always said that Rose made him better. If this was what he was like with Rose, what would happen to them when she was gone?

She paused in her musings, removing her hand from the cold water and drying it as she turned. "Did he say a fourth helix?" she asked suddenly. "I thought Time Lords only had a triple helix in their DNA, TNA, whatever-NA."

Cathryn paused, struggling to remember what she read, all that she researched on Time Lord physiology for her stories. "Well, the Time Lord before going through their first regeneration only has one heart, like a human." She paused in consternation, sipping from the mug that Bec handed to her. "But it's not to say I understood that entire little explanation he gave." She briefly rolled her eyes. "I do think he does that to show off."

"But after their first regeneration?" Bec felt nervous. Would they go through regenerations too? She remembered the tenth Doctor saying regeneration was like dying. The stories she read and watching the process on the show. It looked painful and then…. then, you changed. The person she was gone forever…. Bec swallowed and Cathryn looked at her only with profound empathy. They were both thinking about what this could mean. Still, Bec had to know.

"After the first regeneration, a second heart develops and I think with the fourth helix of Time Lord TNA." Cathryn said softly. "We're not there yet since we haven't….. or, well, maybe won't regenerate." She approached her friend. "Bec, we have a plan. Just remember…." She bit her lip. "I didn't help." All the words that came out of her mouth just were beyond her control. She did have hormone injections once or twice from her Ob/Gyn. True they made her emotional but it was nothing like this. What he was doing to them….Cathryn dug her nails into the cabinet. Yes, they expected to be captured. But they never expected this. Still, a few days worth of injections and they would be out of his hands. The withdrawals they would simply overcome. Would have to overcome.

"Even if we get back to our world, we'll be different." Bec muttered, making herself a new cup. "How could we stay with our families? We'll be… found… collected…" She could never see a doctor regarding a condition. There would be too much risk. It simply broke her heart to think about her children. Her husband. The thought of being forced to part from them because of what the Doctor was doing to them.

"I know my grandfather is dead." Cathryn said. "But your Granny, she's still alive. Would she help us?" She glanced down at her tea. "If what the Doctor is saying is true. She could help reverse this….what's happening."

Bec looked at her and closed her eyes briefly. It was possible. If what the Doctor said was true, she was a Time Lord, perhaps living as a human but it was a hope. Certainly, her Granny would understand their wish for them not to live like this. "My Granny is a lovely old bird," she said with a smile. "She would help us in any way she could, but…" She took a deep breath before shaking her head minutely. "I'm sorry. My Granny… I can't see how he could possibly be right." She swallowed, thinking about her children, bubbling with the fear that even if they found a way home, she wouldn't be able to stay with them and watch them grow up. "I don't…" She choked on her words and shook her head, trying to not be overwhelmed with despair.

"We can do this." Cathryn said in determination. She wasn't going to give up. Forced medication or no, she considered it temporary. Neither of them would be owned by anyone. But for now….

"You both change your mind about dinner?" The Doctor had come in behind them and Bec momentarily froze while Cathryn only briefly closed her eyes.

"In fact, yes." Cathryn finally spoke. "Just decided to make it myself. I have several allergies. I didn't want to risk it." She took a deep breath. "I'm used to preparing my own meals."

"You have?" the Doctor said speculatively. His diagnostic of her wasn't just a matter of a few misplaced nutrients from food borne allergies.

She turned to him, her expression fixed. "For three weeks prior, I went every day to the ICU with my father." She said sharply. "You will excuse the fact that food wasn't the first thing on my mind but…." She paused. "I would rather eat on my own, then have another needle forced into my vein, if that's alright with you."

Bec glanced up at the two, her upset safely compartmentalized away again so he wouldn't see. She lightly chewed on the inside of her lips as she listened to the exchange. Even though she knew Cathryn's dieting habits were somewhat erratic before, her explanation was still plausible. He was looking directly at her friend firmly who only met his stare. Cathryn, had given him the truth, although an abridged account of it.

But in this he seemed to relent. "Of course you can make your own meals. If you told me before-"

"I don't seem to remember getting a chance," Cathryn said, turning from him opening the cold box. She was looking for something simple. Chicken or fish that she could boil on her own. No breading.

The Doctor frowned. So far, this wasn't off to a pleasant start. Rebecca was sipping her tea staring at a fixed point on the floor away from him and Cathryn was now focused on the task in the cold box. He ran his hand through his hair. "There's something I need to discuss with you both."

Bec still needed time after her last confrontation with the Doctor and she wasn't prepared to talk to him now. "Can't it wait?" she asked. Didn't they deserve any respite at all? Her hands gripped the mug tightly as Cathryn tensed.

"It's just a couple of questions," he answered smoothly. He still wanted to get back to the Louvre but he needed some clarification, especially before they went to sleep and another injection was needed. He had two companions onboard. If Cathryn and Rebecca were able to see the events of their lives just by being in their proximity then that definitely went beyond ancestral memory.

He paused to look at his granddaughter who had successfully managed to find an adequate piece of cod from the cold box and was now in the cabinets, muttering about the location of olive oil. "Top left cabinet, over the sink," he directed absently, clearly hearing her. Taking a mug, he poured himself a cup of tea while grabbing the sugar bowl as an accompaniment. Taking three generous spoonfuls, he glanced up at Cathryn while sipping his tea.

"Cathryn, how did you know that Rose was missing from home for a year?" he asked, keeping his voice calm.

Bec nearly choked on her tea and had to stop herself from coughing. She was afraid of this. Neither Rose nor Mickey had discussed those events with them and Cathryn during her inhibition from the withdrawals between the injections had lost control over her discernment.

She could see her friend's posture stiffen at the question as Cathryn took in a sudden breath. She didn't know at that moment what to say.

"I just need to understand." His voice was gentle. "Time Lords, weeell, each Time Lord is capable of time sensitivity. The ability to sense other Time Lords and access to ancestral or direct family memory. It is a bit more rare to be psychically aware of other time lines outside of our family descent." He was understating the case. On Gallifrey, visionaries that could see into the future were rare and those that were stable, rarer still. But they did exist in his family and if this was the circumstance, the hormone dosage had to be adjusted, then training had to ensue rapidly to include regulations about their use of this ability.

"We're not psychic," Cathryn told him. "It's….." She didn't know if telling him it was a TV show in their dimension would make their predicament worse. All the stories she had written, only this wasn't a story. Her stomach churned.

"Rebecca," he started. "How did you know about 'Bad Wolf'?"

She was caught by surprise. She didn't know he had seen her mouth the word to Cathryn. Bec wanted to groan. Lies were not her forte but what could she say?

"Back home," Cathryn said finally. Bec looked at her in surprise. The Doctor examined both his granddaughters.

"You heard this back home?" He raised his eyebrows. _My son and daughter…?_

"We thought they were just stories." Cathryn managed. "Like fairy tales or something you see on a TV show."

Bec internally winced at this but how would they explain the TV shows without seeming mad themselves. The way Cathryn avoided having them being defined as precognitive and despite the tone of voice, the intensity of the Time Lord's stare when he questioned them, she swallowed. It was possible he could find them insane. He already declared them unstable in handling their own medical welfare, which was bad enough.

The Doctor was dubious at this explanation. True, there were one or two visionaries in his ancestry but from what was being inferred, both his son and daughter inherited the gift without the Doctor being aware of it. But the physics of an alternate dimension could have such a radical impact, it may have been an unintended side effect as his children transitioned through the rift. But Cathryn, herself said his son died when she was six years old. Rebecca's grandmother, his daughter was still alive. He recalled Cathryn's claim clearly that his name was a prominent source online for anyone with the will to search for it. _Why would they want to search for it?_ His hearts clenched, remembering how Cathryn said her grandfather spoke little about his family and his life growing up. _Did they use a chameleon arch to become human?_ It would possibly account for it although in the wrong universe, the arch would not have the power to make the full transition due to the wrong energy from that universe in particular. Likely enough to transition them into human society and put their TNA into a state of dormancy. As for their memories….

If his children knew about the fall of Gallifrey….. he had evacuated them from Arcadia with very little warning before sending them through the rift, knowing he would never see them again. He never expected to survive himself but at least, his family would survive. It was the one consolation he gave to himself when he stole 'the moment' device after time locking the war.

But he observed both his girls posture upon being asked the question and how it took a minute or two for Cathryn to respond. He ran both his hands through his hair as he sat down, his elbows on the table, hands propping up his chin. "Are you sure?" he asked and he put up his hand as Rebecca glanced at him in alarm. "Because from what I could tell, it seems a bit more than just a few stories." He looked from Cathryn to his other granddaughter who was now staring at her tea. "Rebecca?" he prodded. "Did your grandmother tell you these stories?"

Bec looked up at him, her eyes flashing momentarily at the mention of her Granny. Her family she was now forced apart from and the ache of her separation returned to her even as Cathryn came next to her, taking her hand, squeezing it gently in reassurance. Looking up at her friend, she took a deep breath before returning to the Time Lord in question. "My family…." Her voice nearly cracked. She closed her eyes and took a breath. She didn't want to talk about it, especially not to him. _He_ who had a twisted interest in her family, her children…

But Cathryn was right, they needed to distract him from thinking they were precognitive. She thought about her dear old Granny, of how she used to read her bedtime stories almost every day, as she lived in the house next door and Bec and her brothers just wandered in whenever they felt like it. Her favourite story, and yet the one she had cried at every time was _Epaminondas_. She smiled softly at the memory. "All the time," she admitted softly in answer to the Doctor's question.

Cathryn in the meantime lost her focus for the task at hand. Cooking now seemed out of the question. She knew the merit behind it. They had to reach some accord or no doubt a leash wouldn't be far behind but after a day like today…..she had watched Bec plead with him not to give her the injection and had seen the helplessness on her friend's face. She would have done anything to intercede and if she thought they had a chance of going without the injections but….it was a futile endeavor. For now.

"I am just trying to help," he said. "If you would only talk with me then-"

"Then…?" Cathryn asked. She slammed the pan into the sink causing everyone in the room to jump. "Then what? Force another injection on us we don't want? Wasn't it enough you tricked us into making you our medical proxy? Oh, you must have thought that was so clever."

"Cathryn," he started, slowly coming to his feet.

"No," she said adamantly. "I, in fact told you the truth. Up to you whether or not you want to believe it. I don't really care but you know." She inhaled deeply as her lips trembled. "I guess I thought you would give me the benefit of the doubt being that we are _family._ " She glanced at Bec. "Let's go. I'm really not hungry anymore."

Bec looked at the Time Lord before nodding fiercely. "Neither am I." She was drained. Perhaps Cathryn was too. Maybe it was his presence and the constant confrontations they had throughout the course of the day. Dinner could wait a few hours until they both had time to calm down.

They left him alone in the kitchen and this time, the Time Lord didn't try to stop them. He was mulling over their words. Cathryn's words. _Stories._ He thought to himself. More specifically it was the way she phrased the explanation. He didn't specifically detect deceit from her and when observing Rebecca, she seemed to affirm if only through some degree, his granddaughter's explanation. _'Like a fairy tale or a TV show.'_ He frowned. Human precognition and psychics were something he was aware of especially with the Cardiff Rift. If they were exposed, it was a possible explanation. With their human genetics combined with Time Lord TNA, acclimating to the environment, they were attempting to interpret the time lines they were exposed to into something they could understand.

It was possible his children were both visionaries. However, that alone was theoretical. Visionaries were identified early at the Time Lord Academy and great care was taken so they would not be prone to Time Lord Dementia. A far worse fate then human Alzheimer's disease. There was a darkness in every Time Lord, which caused the propensity towards madness. Omega had it to such a degree, it had cost the Doctor his own Gallifreyian wife when he formed a dangerous anti-matter reality inside a black hole, which he had to seal, losing his wife in that one decision forever.

But it was either that or risk the entire universe. The choice was difficult but he knew, always knew, which one he would be forced to make.

Then Rassilon became mad at the end of the Time War, forcing his hand. If he wasn't in power, he might have been quietly institutionalized, but the Time War brought out the darkness of the majority of Time Lords directly to the surface. The Doctor closed his eyes briefly, thinking of 'the moment' device. That blinding flash of light. It also included him. The darkness. Otherwise called 'the dark design'. A part of every Time Lord that had been in existence.

But then he was alone. Bitter. Angry. Until Rose came along and even just being human, so fleeting, she saw him for everything he could be. Stood by him. Believed in him and even as early as their first few adventures, he began to believe in her.

He sighed, mulling over his options. His girls were tired and he received as much of an explanation as he was going to expect at the moment. It was likely they were heading back to their rooms to rest. He would take another visit to the Louvre considering the suspicious readings he received from there. He knew he had seen them a few times before but it had been….his mind pondered the centuries, thinking of the possibilities and winced to think if his notion could indeed be a possibility. Putting his mug into the sink, he headed back into the console room to change the coordinates to the early 1990's in Paris, after the pyramid in front of the Louvre had been erected. After all, he knew, it wasn't just the Egyptians that had a predilection for that type of architecture.

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"Oi, you two can't go to bed now," Mickey protested. He had located Cathryn and Bec as they were just approaching their subsequent rooms and the young man seemed somewhat reproachful. He did feel like a third wheel to the Doctor and Rose as his ex-girlfriend had taken to agreeing with each one of the Doctor's decisions. He knew the alien had saved the planet more than once and he had chosen to travel with them for a reason when Sarah Jane turned the Doctor down.

"We just wanted a little break," Cathryn told him. After all, she had nothing against Mickey. He in fact stood up for them when it came to force medicating them. If they had a closer affinity, they would consider taking him into their confidence but both were afraid he would still ultimately talk to Rose, who would then in turn tell the Doctor.

"So, just going to let him tell you to take a nap like you are five years old?" he challenged the two as they both turned. Bec raised her eyebrows.

"Let him tell us…." she started to repeat slowly. "Mickey, he didn't give us nap times." What was Mickey talking about? Was this another regulation the Doctor was instituting that he told his companions but not them? But both Bec and Cathryn decided to go to their rooms after seeing him in the kitchen or did they? She swallowed. Maybe it was another form of manipulation that neither girl had readily picked up on.

"Not what he told me," Mickey said to them. "Rose and the Doctor are just outside in the Louvre and when I asked why you two weren't comin' along, he said you both needed your rest as part of your treatment." He watched Bec clench her jaw. "Said he had to keep you two on some kind of schedule."

"Oh, this is just ridiculous," Cathryn said, feeling irritated. "Nap times? We actually have nap times?" She felt her heart begin to race. Compromise yes but to be systematically controlled to do everything the Doctor said?

"Now, that's what I said," Mickey affirmed. "So why stay cooped up in here? At least, you can get out of the TARDIS for a bit. Think you both could use it."

"But the Doctor and Rose…." Bec started. She wondered if this might cause further trouble. What were they doing back at the Louvre? It wasn't part of any adventure she was aware of. Certainly it was never referenced on the show. "Why aren't you with them?"

"I told 'em I needed to come back for my jacket." He shrugged. "Just sor' of happens you two were on the way."

Cathryn stared at Mickey for a long moment before coming to a decision. She finally nodded. "We'll go with you. Bec and I, we just need to grab our coats." She gave her friend a meaningful look. "Left them in my room."

"I'll be waiting right here then." Mickey was encouraged. The girls were not aware of the Doctor's regimen he had in mind for them. Surely bit by bit, Rose might start to become wary of the alien that was directing everyone without expecting a word in refusal.

It was only when Bec and Cathryn stepped in the confines of her room that Bec turned to the brunette beside her.

"Cathryn, I'm not sure about this. I'm not ready for another…." Her hand waved about, thinking of the prior afternoon.

"We're not there to have a showdown," Cathryn insisted. "Think of it as a performance."

"A performance?" Bec said in confusion.

"To simply show we won't run away." Cathryn raised her eyebrows. "He might even expect it. If Pete's World is to have a chance at working, we have to show him we won't. That right now, we think it's hopeless."

"Lose the battle, win the war," Bec echoed her thoughts from earlier.

"I suppose," Cathryn started, "But he is not about to give us nap times." She rubbed her forehead. "You have to draw the line somewhere." After all, Cathryn hadn't been relegated to take naps since she was four years old and as a show of refusal, she never slept during any of them. The very thought that he would make this part of their schedule had her cringing. Her memories of her grandfather might be few and far between, but he had been gentle. Never forceful or domineering. She couldn't see in her grandfather a resemblance akin to how the Doctor was treating them now.

At the moment, Bec could see Cathryn's point and maybe just the two appearing with Mickey was a sign strength, a testament of will that they simply were not going to follow all his regimens to the letter. Would that not also seem suspect if they became so compliant? A balance had to be struck. They would demonstrate their ability to 'not wander off' in the Louvre while at the same time, cast scorn to his stipulated rest times. _Hitting two birds with one stone_ ,Bec thought. She might feel more asserted by this act of simple defiance, however small it was. Besides, at this point, neither girl was particularly tired anymore.

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"You two are awake." The Doctor spoke calmly although the intensity of his gaze could not be missed, which he cast in Mickey's direction. _The idiot Mickey._ Repeating a thought he had so many times from his prior regeneration. He thought he had explained this. Simply. Effectively. Even most humans could understand. His girls not only needed but were required to take rest intervals at designated periods every seven hours and forty two minutes in conjunction with the injections he was giving them to adapt to the Time Lord physiology that was rapidly asserting itself.

He clenched his jaw briefly, while removing his glasses, pushing himself up from his knees from the sarcophagus he was examining in the Louvre that had been giving the fluctuation in readings with his sonic.

Cathryn didn't miss the not too subtle exchange taking place between the Doctor and Mickey. Bec didn't either. She knew there had always been some friction between the Doctor when it came down to one thing. Rose. The simple but then not simple at all blond human who had quite readily and effectively stolen the Doctor's hearts.

"The two of you weren't tired?" she asked simply. "'S just you seemed like you could use some space." Rose knew what the Doctor had said, what he explained, and she trusted it, but at the same time the nineteen year old was wise enough not to use the words 'medical rest periods' when addressing other adults, especially those older than herself. But how many times had she had one vicious row or another with her own Mum, did she require distance after an argument? Too many to count. She gave Mickey a questioning glance. Oh, she would have a thing or two to say to him later.

"No, we're not and it's a good thing we caught Mickey going down the hallway and asked him if we could tag along," Cathryn said as the young man glanced at her, startled at first, then a small smile starting on his lips. He had expected, was expecting, some heat from this decision but maybe the girls understood his offer for what it was and were trying to return the favor. She continued, "Took a few minutes but eventually he agreed." She rubbed her neck in order to ease some of the tension from the cramped muscles. "I think Bec and I needed someplace off the TARDIS to stretch our legs…. so to speak." Her smile was diffident as Cathryn glanced towards her friend. "I don't know about you but I think I've outgrown nap times I would say, oh, well, twenty years ago….maybe."

Bec nodded in firm agreement. She was an adult with children of her own. Children she still fervently hoped to see again but if anyone was to decide when she was to take a nap, it would be her. "I'm not tired at the moment either." Truthfully, she always felt the tired but that made it a simple matter to ignore the extra weariness she felt at this moment; the girls were attempting to make a critical point, how they would abide him now so he would drop his guard later when they needed him too. "And I've never been to the Louvre before." In her opinion, being chased through the museum hardly seemed to count. "I'm more interested in what we're still up to around here."

The Doctor sighed, running his hands through his hair. They simply weren't making this easy for him. He was trying so hard to ease their transition. Make it as painless as it could possibly be despite the circumstances but….. no. Their arguments today, hormone elevation and their presence here? He had to make some recalculations and he needed to make them quickly. His mind was already processing the details but for now….now, it would be good to avoid another confrontation especially in the middle of the Louvre with the potential problem of a sarcophagus and a nearly activated lodestone on his hands.

"Alright," he muttered. "Fine. You would like to stay, then?" he asked his girls. As they nodded, he just shook his head briefly. He would address this issue with them back on his TARDIS but his work in the Louvre likely wouldn't take that much longer. "I see. Alright. Alright, then," he said in repetition. "Just no wandering off." His voice was firm.

"Not this time." Bec said flatly, scarcely casting a glance in Cathryn's direction who gave a minor nod of approval. "I would only get lost."

"Good, that's good." He put his glasses back on and knelt back down next to the sarcophagus. "What do you two know about Ancient Egypt?"

"Egypt," Cathryn repeated. "Pyramids," she said automatically because it came to the forefront of her mind. "Hieroglyphs and they used papyrus. I think they were pretty advanced although they enslaved others to do their labor for them." She grimaced remembering the bible story of Moses having to lead the Hebrew people out of Egyptian captivity. "There are Egyptian myths and stories but I don't really know them. I liked reading Greek and Roman mythology better." She raised her eyebrows at Bec. Maybe her friend knew more about Egypt if this was some kind of test. "I think Anubis was the god of the underworld and Ra was the sun god?" A question hung in her tone.

Bec shrugged. "Basically everything I know about Egypt I learned from Stargate," she admitted a bit bashfully. "There was Ra, Apophis, Anubis, Osiris, and lots of others who names ended in 'is'..." She shrugged again.

"Stargate. What's that?" the Doctor asked, glancing up from where he was working once more.

"Oh, umm, it was a TV show I liked," Bec said softly as though she was embarrassed to admit it. "All the Egyptian gods were aliens. America got their hands on an ancient artifact, the Stargate. It made a wormhole to other planets and they travelled through it and accidentally made enemies with them. The good guys always won in the end though…" she trailed off.

"Of course they did," the Time Lord agreed with an air of disdain as he turned back to his work. _Humans_ , he thought. Although it was true that in their first transgalactic forays the human race managed to make a lot of enemies before they learned the art of interspecies diplomacy. "Did you really watch rubbish like that?" he asked after a moment, glancing back at her. Still, something bothered him about this telly show called Stargate. The problem being that he never came across a show by that name and admittedly, he was often entertained by human concepts of time travel and wormholes. Even if he thought it was rubbish, he would have likely have watched an episode before coming to a determination.

Bec didn't answer, but she did exchange a smirk with Cathryn that the Doctor didn't miss. ' _Like a TV show'_ , Cathryn had said. His lips pulled into a frown.

"Well," he began, pulling the back on track. "Funny you should mention that show really since what we are seeing here," He gestured to the sarcophagus, "is alien in origin and not Egyptian."

"Alien." Mickey looked at the artifact in front of him. "But it looks Egyptian."

"Believe me, many archeologists make that mistake." He glanced over at his girls noticing Cathryn's eyes widen in a sense of realisation. He pondered this briefly. Was this part of their ancestral memory? Just the way they were sorting through time was so alien in his perspective. So very human. But both girls had been raised human. Their now activated Time Lord TNA was only barely making the smooth transition with his medical assistance from their human genetics. The next several months regardless would be difficult ones. "You know what that mistake was, Cathryn?"

She was caught off guard by the question as she looked at her friend with a sense of anxiety. What could she do? He must have realized when she made the connection of who might be behind the origins of the sarcophagus. It was straight out of classic Who and something she researched for two stories. She had been amused with the concept of aliens imitating Egyptian gods but that seemed relatively logical in approach especially for a TV show. Only it wasn't a TV show anymore. If she admitted to knowing about the Osirians especially after that discussion in the kitchen, it might open a door she couldn't close so easily. Thoughts of the story about Lilly and her 'time sensitivity' ran through her mind. The Doctor could very well declare them as insane. She internally shivered at the idea as she attempted to think quickly in order to answer the Doctor's question.

"I just thought….maybe Bec's show isn't 'rubbish' as you said." Cathryn had never seen Stargate, well, she couldn't remember off the top of her head before but it could work as a distraction point for the Doctor. "I haven't seen 'Stargate' but when Bec said aliens pretending to be gods, I thought we or you could be dealing with something like that here. An alien sarcophagus. The Egyptian gods here could have been aliens just emulating the culture, doing things that were so advanced to that society, it made them appear as gods." She shrugged. "It was just logical conclusion. I don't think you would be so interested in a sarcophagus if it was just run of the mill or human."

He looked at her in evaluation before nodding briefly turning back to the artifact. "Good thinking Cathryn." It was indeed a very well constructed hypothesis given the information she had and he shook his head briefly at just dismissing Bec's show out of instant distaste on the premise of humans engaging in a conflict with aliens. There were indeed very similar elements, which if he hadn't been so prejudicial, wouldn't have just considered it wasteful. "And the show. Sorry for calling it rubbish. Pretty insightful plot, weeell, for humans anyway."

"That's probably the best you're going to get as an apology, Bec," Cathryn muttered as Bec briefly rolled her eyes at the Doctor's superior attitude.

"So it's an alien sarcophagus," Bec concluded.

"Yep," the Doctor said, popping the 'p'.

"Why is it here?" she asked. Bec admittedly was a little worried. Should they even be there? True, there was little information about what happened between episodes, except that the travelling and adventures continued even though those weren't televised, but she was sure they had travelled straight from saying goodbye to Sarah Jane to the SS Madam de Pompadour. Things had changed by their very presence, by them trying to escape to avoid changing his story. She worried at her lip as she worried over the dilemma. She had seen every episode since the reboot but knew little about the early years. Bec knew Cathryn had made the realisation but was attempting to cover for their knowledge through her usual means of half-truths.

"Well, that is the question, isn't it?" the Doctor stated, looking at his readings. "You see, there was a species of aliens called Osirians. Dealt with them in my fifth regeneration. Usually a very noble race, but there are a few wayward members."

"Wayward members?" Rose interjected. "Wha' does that mean?"

"Ohhh, well, the thing is, Rose, this is an ancient race that goes back to the year 150 million BC. Time sensitive, very technologically capable, nearly as powerful as Time Lords were themselves." He paused. "But a few wayward members ended up on Earth and on Mars. People there worshipped them. One particularly dangerous of the lot was just a bit paranoid. Thought that every life form was a potential threat and if he didn't destroy them, they would rise up against him."

"That's absolutely mental," Mickey muttered and Bec agreed.

"Is that what's in there, then?" she asked in confirmation.

"Weeell, possibly," the Time Lord said. He wanted to keep them calm and telling them about Sutekh, an ancient, deadly and embittered Osirian that was very nearly finding his way out of the time tunnel the Doctor in his forth regeneration had crafted was not the way to do it. _Sutekh, the Destroyer._ The Doctor shook his head. _No, not something I should say._ He did wonder how Sutekh ended up here when he left him in a burnt priory on Mars trapped in a time tunnel of the Osirian's own making. He sighed. He was struggling with making adjustments to the dial for the lodestone inside the sarcophagus so Sutekh remained inside the effectual prison the Doctor had created. "The mummy inside is just a dormant or inactivated robot lying in the tomb right now. What we're dealing with is more of the consciousness or mental projection of the Osirian rather than the body."

"Mental projection?" Rose asked.

"Osirians are telepathic. Able to project themselves over certain distances. A bit limited there. They can take over and animate robots for their purposes," he explained.

"Oh, thought control," Cathryn said, without thinking, her mind reflecting on the plastic Santa's she had seen utilized in the show. Briefly, she felt a jab in her arm. Bec was looking at her critically and Cathryn internally winced as the Doctor paused to glance up at her.

"You know about thought control?" he asked and Cathryn swallowed. Mickey looked at her seeing the strain appear in her expression. She covered for him just earlier. Maybe it was time to return the favor.

"Oh, c'mon Cathryn, we talked about it, remember?" Mickey asked. "The Santa's that appeared on Christmas?" He gave her a grin as the girl looked at him in surprise but quickly recovered herself.

"Yes, that's right," Cathryn said. "In the hallway, you mentioned it just before we came here. I must be spacing out. Not entirely myself lately."

"Soooo, Mickey told you and you forgot?" The Doctor looked at his granddaughter analytically as Cathryn struggled to remain composed.

"Can't be that hard with what you're druggin' them with," Mickey accused thereby earning an unfavorable glance from the Time Lord and Rose in equal measure.

Bec's mind had meanwhile flown back to the Nestine Consciousness who used thought control to animate plastic. Was that what they were up against? An enemy like the Autons? Except she'd never known the Autons to have anything to do with ancient Egypt, though she would admit herself that her knowledge of classic Who was sorely lacking. The Autons had disguised themselves as Romans, but that was only part of a plot using Amy to trap the Doctor.

"I thought the Santa's were remote control, not thought control," Bec murmured to Cathryn, yawning partway through her sentence. She was thinking about when the Doctor pulled the remote out of his pocket, where he and Donna faced the Empress of the Racnoss. Bec frowned. In the grand scheme, that episode wasn't particularly far away. She hoped she and Cathryn were long gone by the time he met Donna, even though they would still have to wait a few years in Pete's World before the dimension cannon was ready.

She was tired. She was always tired. It was like a perpetual state for her, so she was used to pushing through even when she felt weary. Her pills, which had disappeared upon her arrival in the TARDIS, helped her to feel more awake, which was more of a pleasant side effect than anything, but without them her head was just starting to feel slow and cloudy. Internally, she berated the Doctor for stealing her medication. Her pills helped her think clearly. Without them, her brain fog, impulsiveness and lack of motivation had caused her to fail college and lose jobs. During the brief time they would be traveling with the Doctor there was a risk of losing something far more valuable if she couldn't keep her own head in check. Right now, however, she was wondering if she should have stayed back and lazed on the TARDIS, not that things looked particularly dangerous. They were all simply standing around an unmoving sarcophagus while the Doctor buzzed it with his sonic.

The Doctor frowned at Bec's yawn. They really should have stayed on the TARDIS. This was going to do nothing to help them through their transition. He silently shot another glare at Mickey. He didn't believe what Cathryn had said about convincing Mickey to let them join him. While she had sounded believable enough, Mickey had initially been surprised by her statement, giving lie to her words. And now, again, Mickey seemed to be trying to cover for them. Perhaps inviting Mickey to travel with them had been a bad idea. It would be much better if it was simply he and Rose with his girls without Mickey the idiot being in cahoots with them and sabotaging his efforts to try to help them. _One trip_ , he thought to himself, and then he would drop the young man home again.

Cathryn glanced at her friend, her mind feeling sluggish as she worked to answer Bec's question. Santa's. Remote Control. Thought control. She stifled the yawn she felt with the back of her hand. _Maybe yawns are really catching._ "No, the Santa's during Christmas were like…." She paused before coming up with the word. "pilot fish. They knew something bigger was coming. Sycorax was controlling everyone with an A positive blood count. Thought control. Not remote control. You're thinking…." She shook her head. "Wrong place."

The Doctor stared at them. Bec had just asked about thought control versus remote control with the Santa's. Cathryn had used two references he made specifically when the Sycorax attacked. Mickey would not have known to discuss this with either of his girls. Now they were both looking tired. Already he was thinking of adjusting the dosages of the injections he was giving them. Now it seemed an outright necessity.

"I'm picking up increased time spillage," he said to Rose, trying to focus at the task in front of him. "I'll need to move the top of it just counter clockwise to access the lodestone." He was becoming increasingly nervous. The positioning of the lodestone, the sarcophagus and the access point was at a near ninety degree angle with the pyramid, newly built, looming as the ugly variant attached to the Louvre itself.

"What if there's a mummy?" Cathryn asked hazily. She glanced at Bec. "Ever seen 'The Mummy' and the 'Mummy Returns'? The mummy in there took someone's tongue." She shuddered. She hoped the Osirian was nothing like the mummy in that movie. Still, she found herself captivated by the object in front of her. Pulled by it. Maybe it was simple curiosity. She discovered herself walking towards it, placing the palm of her hand on the sarcophagus, and feeling a distinct vibration.

"Cathryn, what are you doing?" The Doctor glanced up at his granddaughter and studied her.

"I don't know," she said, tilting her head to one side to look at the artifact. "I've never touched a sarcophagus before." The world around her seemed to vibrate and pulse as she felt Bec step up to join her at her side. "Have you Bec?"

Bec reached out and placed her hand next to Cathryn's, shuddering slightly as she did. "The guards would get us in trouble, won't they," she giggled. "Rory the Roman was a museum guard. Do you think it's like Night at the Museum when everything wakes up at night?" The world was getting hazy around her like it did when she was starting to fall asleep, but she could also feel something scratching at the back of her mind, like a nagging memory that she couldn't quite grasp hold of. She dropped her hand away and shook her head.

"Bec, are you alright?" the Doctor was asking.

"It's something about the mummy," she explained, trying to shake clear her mind. "Brendan Fraser beat it by reading the book, and you beat it by surrendering." _No_ , she thought, _that wasn't right_.

"I liked the mummy." Cathryn was thinking of 'The Mummy' as a film. "Had this romance with Pharaoh's wife. Yes, read a book. Book of Death, gives life, Book of Life, takes life away." She started to chuckle. "Do you think that's reverse psychology? So, people would pick up the wrong book by mistake?"

Bec started to laugh in a nearly drunken matter. "Maybe they could've combined the two. Book of Life and Death."

"Book won't help us here," Cathryn said. "Unless they're like Carronites." She knew Carronites used words as a science to bend things to their will. "No." She nodded to herself. "No books. Have to surrender. Told us that Earth could be our plaything."

"See? Surrendering! I _told_ you!" Bec exclaimed cheerfully.

Now that made the Doctor visibly alarmed. "Who told you this?" He was starting to realise just what his scans were telling him about the robot laying inside the tomb _. It's activating._ He thought. It was dormant before. One of Sutekh's robots that had been placed in the sarcophagus that had been damaged and was actively engaging in self-repair mode. They would have originated from the same period of time and the robots Osirians including Sutekh used, shared similarities in appearance to actual mummies.

"Voice in my head," Bec answered. Her hands were on the artifact. "Adjust the dial, he'll give us the earth as a present." She paused with a smile. "I like presents." She was looking inside the visible open in the sarcophagus. "Cathryn, you see what that is?"

Cathryn's face brightened. "Crack in time. I hear the voices don't you?" she asked her friend. "We just touch it, it will send us home."

"Bec! Cathryn! Listen to me!" the Doctor tried to interrupt, but the girls continued as though they couldn't hear him.

"Our home?" Bec asked hopefully.

"So, this will never happen," Cathryn mumbled. "Told me history can be rewritten. That's what they do. It will be like this never happened."

"I can hear them," Bec whispered. "My children, my family. Just on the other side.

"Me too," Cathryn agreed. They made their way nearer as the Doctor continued to work on the sarcophagus. Strain evident on his expression. This might be more serious then he even believed. He worked furiously on disabling the lodestone, furtively glancing at them with palpable concern as Cathryn started to giggle. "My father. He's right there and he's waiting for me."

Suddenly, without warning she reached down her hand to adjust the dial. Sutekh was absorbing more of the energy they carried. It was just nearly enough.

"Massive time spillage," the Doctor exclaimed in reaction, jumping back. "Everyone out." It was an order cast to his companions. The mummy was continuing its activation sequence. Sutekh only had a low level connection to it being the positioning of the time tunnel. When his girls ran off through the Louvre, the mummy…. _or robot,_ the Doctor thought grimly, must have absorbed some of their void energy they still carried from navigating through a crack in time without a time capsule. It was one decade when his girls both ran through the exhibit leaving a trail of void energy in their wake to feed into the tomb. Full activation required the presence of the pyramid and likewise his girls as an additional source. Sutekh was very patient when he wanted to be.

"Said, no wandering off," Cathryn yawned. Was she seeing things or did the artifact become covered in a putrescent red glow.

"There could be a paradox in place here. Considering the origins or mental state the Osirian could…." The Doctor was struggling to work the mechanism to turn the dial back. "Rose! Mickey! I said get back!" He commanded as they seemed nearly frozen by his side.

"But this…." Bec started. "This could be our new home." She heard her family's voice on the other side of the tiny but slowly opening vortex.

It was the delighted giggling that filled her ears. Her children as they played. The memory at the back of her head still seemed to nag at her uncomfortably, like it didn't quite fit, didn't quite belong, but that little voice whispered for her to reach for the memory, to embrace it, that if she let the memory fill her then it would no longer be a memory, her children would be there with her in reality.

But the mummy wasn't quite strong enough. The sarcophagus was powering up, but it needed the extra energy from the glass pyramid. Energy the Doctor had been attempting to cut off. Her hatred for the man filled her. It was his fault! He did this to them. Locked them up, gave them injections, forced them to change! And now they had a way to reach their families again, for her children to be with her in their new home... She smiled at the laughter. It wasn't just her two boys, it was all four of her precious babies, including Amara and Zachy whom she'd lost. They were all within reach. She sneered at the man who tried to stop it, who would trap her children forever in darkness.

Nearby she spied a portable guardrail, one with seatbelt like straps that clipped to a matching rail to create a virtual barrier. It had already been unclipped from its neighbours, perhaps when the Doctor deemed fit to approach the sarcophagus. She picked up the portable post, balancing it in her hand, before stepping back into her place beside Cathryn.

"Doctor!" Rose screamed as Bec swung the heavy post right at his head.

He barely managed to duck in time, even with his superior reflexes, his granddaughter was already moving to deal him another blow as he stepped forward in anticipation, grabbing the bar with both hands, wrenching it away while she stumbled, a fervent glare in her eyes. "My children! I can hear them! I won't let you stop me from seeing them!" The quality of her voice seemed to change dramatically. "Not this time. Lost once already. This time you're going to lose!"

A sudden blow was paid to his left shoulder as Cathryn moved forward, laughing wickedly as he fell to his knees, the air briefly spent from him. He engaged his respiratory bypass while attempting to gain a clear perspective of the situation. Sutekh was trying to use mental projection to gain control of his girls but it wasn't completely working. The girls weren't fully Time Lord and were still in transition, the telepathic centers of their minds for which Sutekh was depending, not fully developed. That was why they weren't feeling the family bond growing between them quite yet. _Wait._ The Doctor thought. _That's it. The bond._ Sutekh was too strong on his own to fight a telepathic war with and send him back into the time tunnel. But with his girls, working through the bond, there stood an opportunity. After all, Time Lords when Gallifrey existed often engaged and used telepathy as part of the collective. Family bonds were simply a more potent expression. He struggled to stand.

Cathryn just paid the Time Lord before her a spiteful stare. She knew about the nerve cluster in his shoulder and the voice in the back of her mind knew too. Oh, the promises the voice made. She could hear her father speaking to her, telling her if she finished turning the dial with Bec, she could be with her entire family again. He wouldn't die anymore. They would all live a long time. She even heard Anna, her niece giggling, begging to her to read about unicorns when they were reunited. She was telling Cathryn they could go to the zoo again like they did last year. But she had to free them first.

"I'll free you." Cathryn nodded eagerly, before looking at Bec. "We both will." The light around the sarcophagus was getting brighter as they both moved to interact with the object. Once again she laid her hand on the surface just as Bec was doing the same right next to her. "The dial." Bec said dreamily. "Said we have to turn it. They can all come home. I know they can."

The mummy started to climb out of the sarcophagus, throwing the lid across the room. The Doctor shouted as he ran, quickly taking Rose's hand, and leaving the girls behind.

"What about your granddaughters?" asked Rose, running as fast as she could.

"Yeah," Mickey piped up. "Don't mean that much to you now. Do they?"

"Mickey!" Rose objected.

Mickey was about to say more when the Doctor pulled him around a corner and covered his mouth.

"Hush," he ordered in a low tone. The Time Lord's look was dark.

Mickey looked out of the corner of his eye to see the Doctor's other hand covering Rose's mouth. Only a moment later the mummy robot came barreling past the trio, oblivious to where they were hiding. When the sound of the mummy storming off disappeared, the Doctor removed his hands and stepped back.

"I can't help them if I'm dead!" he whispered furiously to Mickey. The Doctor turned to Rose. "Don't worry," he told her. "I've got an idea." Without another word the ancient alien began leading his companions back toward his girls. He knew Sutekh was dividing his mind between two Time Lords. Weeell, maybe they weren't completely Time Lord, but it should still be enough, especially if he added his own mind to the mix. The Doctor never thought he'd be so grateful for the family bond. He knew the girls would probably give him hell over it in the future. But today... Today it might just save their lives.

He clamped his hand down on Bec's wrist, effectively cutting off her almost crazy ramblings, and Cathryn gasped when the Doctor took a firm grip of her arm. This wasn't going to be pleasant. He grimaced briefly, shaking his head. No, not pleasant at all but now it was a necessity. His girls were telepaths but had no training in how to shield their minds therefore they were susceptible to Sutekh's control. Now, though, he needed to use their emerging telepathy against an intrusive, parasitic threat. There was no other choice. Both girls started to cry out in pain as he efficiently forced his mind into theirs, driven in one purpose as he connected to their emerging family bond. He heard both of them cry out in pain, having to cope with two telepathic presences in their minds. But he had no choice. It was similar to a parent rooting out a deeply embedded splinter from a child before it became infected, without anesthetic, an agonizing procedure but one the parent had to perform. The fully developed telepathic pathways his girls didn't yet have would have to act as anesthetic enough. Human minds were so delicate as it was. Despite his focus and the fact that time was a critical factor, he tried to send soothing sensations to both of them.

Cathryn could only cry out in pain from this new voice forcing its way into her thoughts. Her head felt so full. Was it going to split open? Two voices seemed to be speaking at once but now she couldn't understand either one. She started to weep, struggling to pull out of the Doctor's hold. "Stop it!" she said. "Please stop talking. Too much noise. I can't hear. Please….it hurts. It's hurting me!" A slight cooling sensation entered her mind as one voice seemed to anchor onto…. something. It was familiar. What was it? But it was being used. She could feel it. Her strength being sapped from her as the work inside her mind continued. Her father. She couldn't hear her father anymore. Where did he go?

"Dad?" Cathryn whispered. "Daddy, you're still there, right? You'll still come back to me, won't you?" There was silence now where her family's voices filled her ears and she felt gut-wrenching pain at the sudden loss. "Dad!" she screamed.

Bec only felt devastated at the sudden departure of her children's voices. Their laughter, which had been so delightful to hear was suddenly silenced. She cried out for them in agony, feeling the pain inside her mind. She was in the midst of a tug of war. The new voice that entered her thoughts didn't seem to fit but he was forcibly intruding nevertheless. This perpetrator was responsible for the silence that fell between herself and her children. She was sure of it. And as he seeped his way into the very center of her thoughts, she cried out. "Stop!" She struggled frantically but could not pull away. "Stop it!" He was torturing her. Couldn't he see that?

The moment the thought struck her, there was a calming sensation. A minor soothing that was offered as a balm to otherwise inflamed nerve endings.

"Bring them back," Bec demanded. "I can't hear them. My children. Can't leave them in darkness. Please give them back!" In desperation, she tried to call out each of their names, hoping they would respond. Nothing. Internally, she started to weep bitterly feeling the devastating loss she had once endured happen all over again. _I can't…._ she thought frantically. _I can't lose them again….please…._

The Doctor could hear both his girl's thoughts and it broke his hearts but now he had firmly navigated his way through their mental pathways and anchored himself into the core of the already emerging family bond. One part was over but he was now using his girl's telepathic abilities, forcing them in sync with his own as a more powerful channel to push Sutekh out of their minds. Using their connection to rebound the Osirian back into the time tunnel for which he was fated to linger. But doing it would usurp likely a steady amount of his girl's energy that was already leaving them in a state of imbalance. Feeling mentally exhausted as a ramification. It was certainly better than losing either one of them to this parasitic, telepathic entity. Gently, but firmly, he proceeded to push the barrier that was formed as part of the bond inside their minds to the intruding forces. Sutekh's mind that had been divided between the two. The Osirian was unstable but the Doctor, guiding the hand of his two reluctant girls, was not. The task was proceeding as he made careful inroads forcing the entity to release each tendril of its grasp on Cathryn's and Bec's mind while forcing the creature back inside the time tunnel.

"No!" Cathryn protested again. "My father! I want my father. He promised my father!"

"Amara," Bec managed, tears in her eyes. "Zach." She swallowed. "My boys. They're gone." Her voice started to crack. "They're just…"

 _I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry._ The mental voice radiated throughout their minds almost continuously as they felt the utter pain of their loss while the presence in their heads forced them to drive something else away. Something that had merely been a mild flicker. Scratching at the back of their minds. Uttering intoxicating promises that neither one could resist. The slight scratching now seemed to claw at them in an attempt to hold in place, to not be expelled.

"Doctor!" Rose cried out. "The mummy!" Her voice was a warning. "He's headin' this way!"

"You and Mickey go and hide right now." The Doctor's voice brooked no room for argument.

"But wha' 'bout you?" Rose didn't want to think about leaving the Doctor, her Doctor behind.

"I'm almost done Rose." He forced assurance in his tone. "Just a few more seconds." He could hear the mummy robot staggering through displays, crashing things in his wake. Tourists were screaming. The alarms around the Louvre started to sound. He took a deep breath. If he was quick enough, it wouldn't matter. Once he forced Sutekh back in the time tunnel, sealing it, the robot would lose its power. But only moments remained. He had to act quickly. More lives hung in the balance. So he pushed harder on the bond and the barrier he formed despite his girl's tolerance. It was in that moment, both gave a gut wrenching scream of agony, which didn't match the mental inhumane shriek he knew was Sutekh's, as one final agonizing thrust dispelled him back into the waiting partially opened vortex.

In those seconds, as quickly as he could, he disengaged himself from his girl's minds who in turn collapsed on the floor, trembling on their sides. Rose and Mickey leapt forward, immediately assisting to drag each girl away from the sarcophagus. This time without the girl's physical contact and the blocked pyramid, he was able to finally close the rift before turning the dial to send Sutekh backwards in time five hundred thousand years. Ten times the life span of any Osirian. Better safe than sorry, especially now. Weeell, no. Another measure needed to be taken. He heard the horrendous shrieking of Sutekh as he was forced backward far into time where he couldn't survive since an Osirian could only travel through his or her approximate life span. He was about to activate the final measures by igniting the lodestone.

The mummy robot Sutekh has been controlled had just barely grasped his arm. Trying to wrench him away. Fingers wrapped around his throat, squeezing tightly. The Doctor flailed. Even with ten times the strength of a human, the robot was more than a match for him. But it was Mickey. A surprise for him given the day's prior events. He picked up the dropped sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the lodestone as Rose only whispered briefly. Without hesitation, the very device started to glow in activation and then burned, pieces of it falling apart into a charred ruin. The last crack of the time tunnel sealed, the robot fell over, directly on the floor. Once again, dormant having no further commands being given to it by the Osirian that controlled it.

The Doctor inhaled, closing his eyes briefly before he looked at his girls, both in tears on the floor, clasping each other's hands for comfort. No doubt they suffered from their experience and carefully he bent down in front of them, attempting to keep his voice soothing. "I'm sorry. I had to. There was no choice." He said. "If I didn't force the Osirian out of your minds, I would have lost you both." Silence followed his statement as they only looked at him in shock. Grief was a double measure. It was nearly as though they had been separated from their families all over again.

"My father…." Cathryn's voice was shaky. "I heard him."

"It wasn't your father, Cathryn." The Doctor gentled his tone. "I promise you it wasn't. It was an Osirian called Sutekh who used telepathy. He wanted you to think that it was your father or…." He looked at Bec. "Your children."

"They were so real." Bec's voice was despondent as she felt a wave of depression starting to settle on her. She had thought for just a moment, her children might be returned but it wasn't….. she looked at the sarcophagus. Smelled the burned metal. The scratching that was in the back of her mind was gone. No, the voices of her children didn't quite fit but at that moment, she didn't care. She just wanted them back.

Cathryn blinked back her tears as she moved to the other girl's side, putting her arm around her shoulder. Maybe it was true. Osirians were superior telepaths and the trick wasn't beyond their capability. Playing on their memories. She could only imagine how Bec must be feeling. Having to lose two children was probably the worst pain for any parent to endure. A parent shouldn't outlive their child. That much she knew. But in life, there were things you couldn't anticipate. Rules generally conceived by society had no impact on nature or a fallen world. So she swallowed whispering the only words that brought her comfort, which Bec had once told her. "But God is still in control right?" Despite the universe they were in, life or death, God had control and would see them through this. It was the only thing Cathryn now could cling to.

Bec finally nodded as she closed her eyes. Opening them, she saw chaos all around them. Other artefacts in cases strewn about the floor in pieces. Chunks of marble ripped from walls. She still heard the tourists screaming. Wasn't this supposed to prove to the Doctor they wouldn't run? Now she remained uncertain of whether this truly helped their position or only proved that they couldn't be trusted.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," she tried. "We just wanted to see what you were doing. We had no idea…." Her voice was lackluster with defeat while the Doctor put a comforting hand on both their shoulders.

"It wasn't your fault," he assured them. "Doubt you asked to have your mind possessed by an alien entity, I don't think." He nodded. "Good to be curious but…"

"You wanted us to sleep," Cathryn discerned, finishing his sentence. "It was only supposed to take a few minutes."

"Expect the unexpected," the Doctor concluded. "Next time, don't take Mickey up on his…." He glanced at the young man. "Distractions."

"He didn't," Cathryn said firmly. "We wanted to go." She glanced at the young man. "Besides, don't you think you're underestimating him? He helped save your life back there. Did you even thank him?" She gave him a brief scowl in reproof.

The Doctor inhaled. She certainly had a way with words but at this point, she was right. When it was needed, Mickey had been there for him. Maybe he was too quick to dismiss him. In fact….the ancient Time Lord was thinking. Perhaps, if he allowed his girls to develop a rapport with him, he might be better able to anticipate their needs. Mickey often confided in Rose. This might work to his advantage.

At any rate, his work here was done. Best he clear away his companions and his girls to the TARDIS before security got there first. He cringed briefly at the questions they just might have for him considering the disaster that was left in his wake.

xxxxxxxxxx

The Doctor's first demand was for them to come to sickbay so he could examine them for any permanent damage that might have been left in Sutekh's aftermath. So far, the results had been promising. Indeed a headache or two was expected after utilising the bond in the way they did but an analgesic would help with the pain and perhaps, they might as an after effect start to sense more of the innate bond with one another since he forcibly widened their telepathic pathways. Neither brooked an objection to going to sickbay seeming to reconcile themselves to their fate. The Doctor nodded briefly to himself as he pulled out two newly prepared syringes out of the drawer. _At least they didn't try to run first thing in the Louvre._ That was something. A step forward, he believed. Still, there was now this new unpleasantness to handle but it had to be done, especially after today. Pressing his lips together, he turned back to his girls.

"It's time for another injection," he said, seeing their already reluctant expressions. "I'm sorry, you both are in need of one. It would risk you deteriorating. The telepathic attack only increases that chance two fold."

Cathryn took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Of course she could fight again but that wouldn't make a venture into Pete's World easier when they both attempted to flee. On a second note, fighting did little good where the Doctor was concerned. She was on his turf. Where would she go even if she tried to run? There was little reason at the moment and she needed to assist in allowing him to drop his guard. _Just a few more days._ She told herself. "Fine." She held her hands up in a placating gesture. "I'll go first." She shook her head. "No point in fighting. Don't want to risk anymore damage." Well, that much was true. She didn't want to derail what fragile inroads they were trying to make already.

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. Well, that was an improvement anyway so he smiled at his granddaughter. "Thank you Cathryn." He said approaching her, taking her arm. "Now this won't hurt a bit." The needle inserted her skin, going directly into her vein. She cringed but didn't otherwise move and the Doctor nodded. "You did wonderfully." He commended.

He started to pull out another syringe. It was Bec's turn. Maybe if he hurried then-

"Cathryn!" Bec cried out. She saw her friend standing there one minute and then swiftly starting to collapse at the next.

The Doctor acted instinctively, catching her while placing her gently on one of the medbay beds. He rubbed his forehead and grimaced. "It's not supposed to be that fast. Could be her malnutrition. Thought I would have more time."

"More time?" Bec stared at Cathryn with incredulity as clarity started to dawn on her. "You sedated her. She wasn't fighting you but you just put her to sleep." Her heart started to pound. "No, nu-nu-nuh, no, no, no…..." She knew. Just as the Doctor turned on her, the way he looked at her, she knew. This was part of their new regimen. He had introduced sedatives into the injections. Nap times were no longer optional. They would sleep exactly when he demanded it. Things were spiraling. It was one more freedom that was now being torn away from them as if it was nothing of consequence. Bec clenched her jaw. Nothing of consequence to him, but then at this moment, it was everything to her.

She turned and fled into the TARDIS corridors, ignoring his call to her retreating back. Rose and Mickey were nearly at the medbay. They had pused in the console room to exchange heated words but had finally followed the Doctor and his charges out of their concern for the two women. But Bec didn't even hesitate. She had to get away, had to escape!

She instinctively drew on the years of experience fighting with and fleeing from her brothers. She dropped her shoulder and charged right at the gap between the two impeding bodies. She felt herself glance against someone and ram hard into the other, but her momentum kept her going until her pathway was clear once more.

"Rose! Are you alright?" the Doctor asked crouching down beside the young woman. After a quick assessment, he pulled out his sonic and ran it over her back where her diaphragm sat, relieving the muscle contraction that prevented her from drawing breath.

"What is she a _Rugby player_?!" Mickey yelled incredulously as the Doctor quickly worked.

"... fine," Rose gasped. "I'm... fine... Jus'... winded..."

Satisfied, the Doctor stood and stared down the hall, trying to determine where Bec may have run to. She hadn't been doubled back, which implied to him that she must have taken refuge somewhere rather than simply trying to run as far from him as she could go.

"Rose," he began, having come to a decision. "You stay here and watch Cathryn for me. Mickey, I need you to help me find Bec."

"What?" the boy said defensively. "You tried to drug her again or something?"

The old Time Lord growled as he turned on the human and vented some of his anger at the little ape's lack of understanding. "Mickey the Idiot. If they don't get the rest and medications they need they'll burn their bodies out before they've even acclimatised to this universe. When a human is starving, their body draws on the sugars and nutrients stored in the fatty deposits and little used muscles for energy to keep itself alive. Their bodies are doing the same; only they don't have the resources stored away to maintain their emerging Time Lord physiology. Their emotional displacement, their anxiety and their disorientation are symptoms of a starving brain, and, as you've seen, the onset of their destabilisation is as little as a matter of hours. How much longer do you think they have without intervention, hmm? You want to help them? Then help me!" He turned and stormed into the TARDIS corridors searching for signs of where his granddaughter had fled.

 _Show me_ , his mind whispered to his TARDIS as he sprinted down the hallway. He skidded to a stop at the only open door he had seen. The library. His chin lifted as he remembered where she had hidden the first time she'd fled from him. That time had been a lot less volatile than this occasion.

He glanced about as he warily entered, while a slightly puffed Mickey Smith finally caught up with him. The Doctor turned his head towards the other man slightly as he spoke, but his eyes continued searching the room. "Close the door," he said in a soft low voice. "And call me if you find her."

He quickly darted forward at a soft whispery sound, carefully maneuvering through the bookcases to stay hidden. He frowned as he saw the source of the faint sound. One of the volumes of the Encyclopaedia Gallifreya sat open on the floor next to a set of stairs that led to the library's upper levels, whispering its secrets. He carefully re-corked the jar and silently began creeping up the staircase.

Mickey, on the other hand, wandered aimlessly as he searched the ground floor, and it was he who found the girl huddled beside a couch with a side table pulled in front of her. She desperately mimed for him to help her and keep her secret, but, looking at her, Mickey could see the Doctor was right. She was shivering, almost shaking violently, as she clutched a bottle of something to her chest. Her skin was overly pale and she was sweating far too much given the situation, and she didn't quite seem able to focus on him properly. He swallowed guiltily and met her blurry gaze. "I'm sorry," he told her, before loudly announcing her location to the Doctor.

"NO!" she cried out, pulling herself out of her little nook, but by the time she untangled herself, the older Time Lord had already entered their row. She threw the jar of encyclopedia she'd been cradling at him, but he caught it and lightly tossed it onto the couch beside him

"It's okay, Bec," he told her as he slowly approached, his empty hands held up in a placating manner.

Bec glanced around frantically before laying her hands on the olden style lamp, hurling it at the Doctor, but, once more, he brushed the projectile aside with ease.

"Bec, just calm down! I'm not going to hurt you."

" _Liar_!" she screamed, lifting the side table by one of its legs, tipping its contents to the floor and holding it up like a baseball bat. "That's all you do! You _lie_! I just want to go _HOME_!" She swung the table threateningly as he slowly approached. "Just stay away! Just leave me _alone_!"

He watched her, studying her erratic pattern before stepping closer and catching the table mid swing. "I can't do that," he told her softly.

" _NO!_ " She shoved the table at him, releasing her grip and then backed away fearfully towards Mickey.

The young man reached out to try to calm her. "Bec," he began as the Doctor called out to him in warning. Bec turned and grabbed him, spinning him around to use him as a shield.

"Bec, it's okay!" the Doctor tried again, his voice calm but serious. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"You can't just make me sleep!" she screamed. She backed away, pulling Mickey with her as she glanced behind her, searching for an escape.

Mickey could feel how much her hands were shaking where she held him by the elbows. He tried to struggle free but, somehow, her grip was almost impossibly strong and he couldn't shake her off. "Bec, Bec just think about this," he said, a note of panic to his own voice.

The girl quickly adjusted her grip and pushed the man at the approaching Time Lord, catching one of his ankles with her foot so he would stumble into the Doctor and she fled once more in the opposite direction.

She skirted around the edge of the room back towards the only doors she knew the location of, but when she tried to open them they resolutely remained closed. The Doctor's voice echoed as he called for her, and she knew she only had seconds to escape. She shook at the handles, but the doors didn't even rattle. She fought against her bubbling panic as she slowly withdrew the screwdriver he had given her. The device sat heavily in her hand as she tried to remember everything, anything, he'd said about how to use it, but eventually she just fell back on the point and think technique. The door remained stubbornly locked against her.

"Bec," came a soft voice from behind her.

It was too late, he'd found her, and there was nothing nearby that she could harness to protect herself.

" _No!_ " she cried, spinning around. "Stay away! I want nothing from you! _Nothing!_ " She briefly glanced down at the useless device in her hand. He'd probably deliberately made it so she couldn't use it against him. She threw it at him as hard as she could - " _NOTHING!_ " she repeated - but once more he just reached out and caught the projectile with ease.

The room seemed the tip around her, so she held one of her hands back against the door to keep her balance. She wondered if he was trying to hypnotise her, to disorientate her to make her a weaker target. She tore her gaze away from him, and that was the moment he sprang into action.

Seeing her swaying weakly, he leapt forward, catching her by her right hand, and quickly spinning, rotating in position to press his back against her chest while firmly pinning her so her back was against the door while her arm was held securely to his front. She screamed and thumped him with her free hand, but she didn't have enough room to place a stronger blow. He tightly held her arm with his elbow and gently but firmly pulled her hand back to expose her wrist. The veins on her wrist would suffice for her injection, but it did worry him to see how small the veins were. As he pulled out the already prepared needle, he ran through in his mind how much both girls had eaten and drunk since they came into his care, and his conclusions sat uncomfortably with him.

"No, no, no, please don't..." his granddaughter was begging.

"It's okay, Bec," he promised. "You start to feel better in just a moment."

The injection complete, he carefully released her and turned to face her. She sank to the floor in despair, scratching frantically at her wrist as though she was trying to remove the preparation. He caught her hands and held them still. "It's okay," he consoled her gently. "Just ten more seconds. Seven..."

She shook her head and tried to pull her hands away, tear tracks running down her cheeks, but she felt so weak and the edges of her vision were flickering darkly. "Please," she whispered.

"...two, one." The Doctor sighed as Bec softly slumped to one side, and he quickly gathered her into his arms in relief. The injection wasn't going to have been enough with the extra adrenaline in her system, so he was going to have to top up the dose he'd given her. He also decided that a course of fluids would be beneficial for both of them.

"Will she be right?" Mickey asked from behind him.

"She'll be fine," _but it was close_ , the Doctor answered, keeping the second part of his comment to himself.

"Why did you need to drug them again anyway?" Mickey asked. "Didn't you do that before we went to France?"

The weary Time Lord sighed. "If you eat and then exercise, your body burns all those calories and nutrients much faster, without storing them. Theirs does the same."

He gently hefted her up and led the way back to the medbay.

"Is she alright?" Rose asked quickly, jumping up from where she sat beside Cathryn.

"She's fine," the Doctor promised as he set the girl on a bed. "Bit of sleep will do them both good."

He paused, pulling Rebecca's sonic out of his pocket. _'I want nothing from you'_ , she'd said, but he hoped it was a delirium induced statement rather than how she truly felt. His hand tightened on the screwdriver. It was the _one thing_ they had connected over since his granddaughters arrived. He carefully slipped the device back into her pocket, before turning to prepare a course of fluids for them and a second injection for Bec. He only wondered what would await him when his girls finally did awake from their imposed slumber.

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 **Authors' note:**

 **Another chapter for you all to enjoy. As always, thank you Almadynis Rayne, Fan Fictional Authoress and LovelyAmberLight for your help and encouragement, and to everyone else for your kind words and support. :-)**

 **You know how to reach us!**

 _ **azaadin & emptyvoices**_


	5. Finding Patience

**Chapter 5: Finding Patience**

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Cathryn blinked her eyes open staring at the ceiling of the medbay lit by only a singular diffuse glow. A gesture likely meant to comfort given the soothing nuances throughout the room but….no. Something wasn't right. Why was she still in the medbay? Did she get sick? She remembered dimly volunteering for the last injection. Not putting up a struggle so that Bec's brilliant idea could stay firmly in place. Hadn't she done everything right? They didn't run in the Louvre and the Doctor told them the attack by the Osirians wasn't their fault and….she blinked rapidly to clear away the haze recognizing the familiar sensation of an IV in her arm. The needle worked into place while a steady drip echoed in her ears. Was it just her or could she hear every drop that solution continued to drip into her waiting vein. _What happened?_ She cleared her throat, still feeling the edges of fatigue clinging to her but noticed too that Bec was on the bed beside her, eyes just barely opening to take in her surroundings.

"Bec?" Cathryn could barely manage a whisper. "Bec, are you okay?" Her worry immediately went to the other girl whose expression she couldn't identify. "What happened? Did we get sick?" She shook her head. "I don't remember. I went first to take the shot and…." Her words drifted as Bec turned to face her. From her expression, something serious had occurred and Cathryn felt her heart start to pound as her fists clenched reflexively in apprehension. "What is it? Did I do something wrong?"

Bec swore loudly, expressing to Cathryn exactly what she thought of the Doctor before willfully pulling her anger into check. "He drugged us! He..." She closed her eyes as she tried to make sense of her memories. She remembered running, remembered being afraid, remembered him coming, so being unable to escape... She shook her head, hugging herself tightly. "He put us to sleep," she said softly, her voice defeated. How could they resist him? How could they escape?

She viciously held back tears. She might not be able to fight him, but she wouldn't let him make her cry. Her expression set into anger as she shoved her fear and pain aside. She wouldn't let him hurt her anymore.

"Oh, Bec." Tears came to Cathryn's eyes. In a certain sense, she felt more compassion for the other girl. Cathryn had been unconscious not expecting this new addition into their injections. Of course Bec saw her collapse and probably gave way to panic. A reaction Cathryn fully understood. She might have well done the same.

"But why?" she asked. "I volunteered. He didn't have to do this. I just…" She licked her lips. "I don't understand and…" She glanced at the IV nervously as her heart sank. Maybe she didn't believe in heroes but she wanted to believe the Doctor was better. Better than this. "I was wrong." Briefly, she was shaking. "I thought…" She didn't know what she thought. The feelings. Betrayal. Hurt. Anger. She always wanted there to be a reason and she stared at Bec, not wishing to believe what just occurred. "Maybe it was me." She spoke faintly. "Maybe I did something wrong. Provoked him without knowing it." It was far easier to blame herself than to live in this uncertainty. How would they survive or endeavor to continue until the opportunity for Pete's World presented itself?

"Never blame yourself for someone else's stupidity," Bec spat, her hate filled words directed at the absent Time Lord. She took a steadying breath so she wouldn't vent her anger upon Cathryn, concentrating instead on the IV. "Sorry," she muttered softly.

It looked like a regular needle and machine, albeit an incredibly futuristic and high-tech machine, but it wasn't a cuff like the one Laura had been forced into in Cathryn's story.

Bec debated for a moment. If she removed the IV, would he simply force her into a cuff like Laura's? After considering the problem, she decided that it didn't matter. He was forcibly medicating them anyway. If she resisted and he put her in a cuff, perhaps the physical evidence would let him see what he was doing to them. She laughed at herself as she gently began unsticking the tape holding the needle in place. Maybe he didn't even care. If he'd made up his mind, he wouldn't see even if it hit him in the face.

Cathryn smirked at Bec's reaction as she followed in a likewise manner, wincing briefly as she pulled the needle from her arm. She was certain the Doctor would know about the detached IV's quickly enough. A sort of pulse resonated through the TARDIS. "I bet you gave him a run for his money," she tried in an effort to cheer her friend up, to which Bec nodded despondently. At this point it was all they had. Friends from the opposite side of the world who came together in a reality not their own. She hardly knew how to react. She recalled their plan, which was why she volunteered to show that they were becoming compliant but if the Doctor didn't care about any of their demonstrations of good will…. the acts they needed to make to convince him, then what was it all for? Suddenly, the door opened as the Doctor strode in triggered by the detached IV's staring at both his girls in unison. Bec was still simmering but Cathryn managed the question first. "Why?" she demanded. "Why did you to this to us?" She pushed herself upwards on the bed meeting his gaze with a fervent one of her own.

"I had too," the Doctor said. "After the telepathic attack, weeell before, your sleep cycle was interrupted and burning through your psychic energy stores on a massive scale causing a deterioration of-"

"Bullshit!" Cathryn exclaimed. She honestly wasn't given to swearing unless truly angered, so incensed, there was no other phrase to justify a wretched predicament. "A bunch of crap. We were tired anyway. After we got the normal injections, we both would have gone to bed. You didn't even bother to give us a chance or choice." She glanced at Bec. "I now know what you are." Her tone was bitter. "You're a coward."

Bec didn't even look at him, she just turned aside and tried to keep her rage in check. She stood and made her way towards the exit, but the Doctor quickly closed it.

"I need to do some tests before you go out," he told her.

The memory rushed through her mind, fighting with a locked door, unable to escape. _He was doing it again!_

She backed away, still looking anywhere but in his direction, her hands clutching uselessly by her sides.

"And for some particular reason you couldn't do them while we were unconscious?" Cathryn said with sarcasm. "Oh, perhaps you find this far more entertaining while we're awake." She paused, clenching her teeth together in a hiss.

"Cathryn…" the Doctor tried, pain shadowing his entire expression. "You need to be conscious so I can double check for any lingering trauma that may have resulted from the psychic attack. Regardless of what you think of me, I don't enjoy seeing either of you like this."

"You have honestly no idea of you've done. Despicable." Cathryn turned away.

"Of course, you're in the dark. What are we to you? Little more than pets?" She certainly knew the TARDIS considered them strays. Why wouldn't Time Lords do the same? "You're just our jailor."

"I just am trying to help," he tried.

"Not very hard since you had to sedate me when I was volunteering for the injection and chased Bec down like a dog before forcing a needle in her arm." The brunette sneered. "What kind of person would do that?" She pressed her lips together. "What kind of man." She paused. "Oh, you're not a man aren't you?" Cathryn paused briefly thinking of Lilly's comment in 'Reality'. "That's right. You're only Time Lord."

His voice became utterly authoritative. "I'm the Doctor. Your Doctor. You are my family. I had to do what was necess-"

"How dare you!" Bec interrupted, her venomous voice low and soft. She was literally shaking as she fought to control her anger. "How _dare_ you!" she repeated, rounding on their captor. "You _attacked_ me and call it _help_!" she sneered.

"You gave me no choice. You needed-"

"There's _always_ a choice!" she swore at him. "And I've made _mine_! Keep your tests and your needles. I want _nothing_ to do with you, not now, not _ever_!"

"Bec," he began, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"NO! You don't get to call me that!"

"Bec!" he repeated deliberately, looking down on her. "You can't refuse me. Your physiology is still unstable and you suffered a psychic attack which-"

"You're talking like you think I care," she told him, trying to keep her voice bland, but unable to completely hide her scathing tone. "You have no right to-"

"I have every right!" the Doctor corrected her with a shout. "I am the head of the House of Lungbarrow and you will-"

"Your family died!" Bec yelled over the top of him. Her voice rang in the silence of the room. "Your family died." She spoke softly, venomously, repeating the words she'd used against him in the hallway days before. "You _killed_ them. _We_ are _not_ your _family_! And if, somehow, you're right, then kill me now." She swung her arms wide. "Because life with you is nothing but a slow torturous death. Everything you touch turns to ashes."

The Doctor's face was pale and his mouth hung open. Bec knew that she shouldn't be proud, and yet she felt a vindictive pleasure to have obviously cut him so deeply.

She fished into her pocket and took out her sonic. She could recall throwing it at him in the library, and yet there it still sat in her hand. She threw it at him again, and this time he did nothing the prevent it hitting his chest. "You are nothing to me, and I want nothing from you!" she spat, then she stormed away towards the door once more. This time, the door opened with ease, and even rattled satisfyingly when she slammed it behind her.

He looked down at the sonic that he had given to Bec, lying innocuously on the floor, her words sinking in, cutting him deeply. _'Kill me now.'_ That mantra seemed to repeat in his mind. Did she mean what she said? Did Bec really prefer death rather than being his granddaughter? The family bond was still only new, still growing as their telepathic centre's developed, and yet her anger had been strong enough to burn him through their link. No, her _hatred_. She _hated_ him. His own granddaughter… He swallowed, feeling that pain sear through his hearts as he turned to the girl who had remained in the room.

Cathryn walked over, her face looking utterly listless as she picked up Bec's sonic in her hand. Her thoughts went to her father and then to the man standing before her. The contrast was horrifyingly bleak and she never longed to be home as much as she did at that moment. Pressing her lips together, she spoke. "Is this how Time Lords treat their children? Is this what you call 'love'?" She said this rhetorically. Oh, she imagined there would be cultural barriers and distinctions but he had hosted scores of human companions. He had fallen in love with Rose even if there was difficulty finding or stating that very expression, which encompassed his affection towards his blond human companion.

"Cathryn," he started. "I need to do this to ensure a safe transition." He tried to make her understand. With the bond emerging, they should be starting to grow aware of it, to feel him at the edges of their consciousness, just as he could feel them. In that effort, he sent his emotions towards his granddaughter, his concern and his sorrow about their welfare. "What I did-"

"You didn't even tell us," she interrupted him. "Didn't even give us a chance. Didn't explain why sleep was important." She paused, staring at him coldly. "No, why would you? You stole and manipulated our words to become our medical proxy. Why bother with any kind of informed consent? Why even try to treat us with any level of respect?" She shook her head. "We are no better then animals to you. Property. Isn't that right, _Grandfather?"_ She used the title in mockery instead of in affection. Obvious sarcasm but she wanted her point to be made loud and clear.

He was stunned. The Time Lord had hoped, given the rest he imposed, they might be more rational, more of sound mind, but this was proving quite the opposite. He inhaled through his nose, knowing he needed gain control and direction of this conversation. After all, they were under his jurisdiction and authority, his family, and both his girls very immature Time Lords in the course of development. They were in years the equivalent of human teenagers to him, yet they were not treating him with the due deference he expected of Time Lord's their age. He was their great-grandfather, after all, and their head of House. "Cathryn." His tone became firmer, more unyielding. "You will listen to me."

"No, I won't." She shook her head. "You see, I remember my grandfather whom you say is your son." She swallowed. "He was _nothing_ like you and thank God for that! I knew he _loved_ me. Now I'm grateful." She nodded. "Grateful that he was never anything like you." Cathryn walked to the door. "Bec's right. Your family is dead." She tossed her friend's sonic onto the nearest medical tray which made a resounding clatter. "If this is how you treat us, it's best you kill us both now. It would be a mercy compared to living forever, stuck with _you_." She exited the room without looking back. Cathryn still had her sonic in her possession. They didn't need two. The girls would search for the psychic paper and run at the first good opportunity in Pete's World. Then, this whole horrendous experience would be considered a nightmare once they returned home. The damage would be undone and Cathryn knew she would never watch another Dr. Who episode so long as she lived. Being human, having her freedom with her ability to make choices, maybe she had taken that for granted before. Never again.

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The Doctor was sitting in the library, his very posture one of grief as his hands rested over his eyes. The argument regarding his girls' necessary sedation had not gone well. The things Bec said to him….what if his own family would continue to despise him? How much more could his fragile hearts take? They were all he had left and had been doing, was willing to do, everything to keep them safe. Why couldn't Bec and Cathryn see that?

"What am I going to do?" he asked himself. "They're so alien. So human."

Any of the techniques he'd been using would have worked perfectly with children loomed on Gallifrey. He should know. He'd raised seven of them, plus quite a few grandchildren including Susan. He was known for being a good father throughout the house of Lungburrow. Even his own children had told him so. But nothing had worked with the children who'd found their way back to him.

"Oh, Patience," he grieved the loss of losing his first wife. "Where are you when I need you the most." _I need your counsel_ , he thought. _I need your help_. "Our children need your help," he whispered. _I'm losing them._

The old Time Lord's hearts cried as his shoulders moved in time with his quiet sobs. He'd lost so much. He'd lost and lost and lost. It was like the universe was taunting him, giving him back a tiny bit of what he'd loved so much, his family, only so he could lose it all over again too. It wasn't fair.

"Doctor?" Rose's voice echoed through the corridor.

The Doctor sat up straight, quickly wiping away any evidence of his grief.

"There you are." She stepped into the room. "Are you alright?"

He gave her a quick smile. "Oh, you know me, Rose." The Doctor stood up, inhaling sharply through his nose. "I'm always alright." He put his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels.

"Exactly," Rose responded.

"Um. Excuse me?" The alien looked confused.

"Exactly," she repeated. "I do know you."

Rose had known him the instant she'd met him. She'd understood his need to drive away the Monsters. She'd connected with his sense of humor. And she'd seen the loneliness in his eyes. It was the same loneliness she saw now.

"They're not Time Lords you know." She didn't apologise for the grief he was suffering. She knew that's not what the Doctor needed to hear. "They need Patience," she added.

"Wh... What did you say?" he questioned, hearing the girls' great grandmother's name.

"They need patience," she repeated herself. "You keep actin' like they should just know what your do in'. Like they should just trust you, yeah. An' maybe that's how it works on Galileo."

"Gallifrey," corrected the Doctor.

"Right. Galli..."

"Gal-li-frey," the Doctor enunciated each syllable.

Rose smiled, letting her tongue tease her teeth. She gave her Doctor a look. "Does it bother you that it took me a while to learn how to say Gallifrey?" she spoke the name of his world as though she'd grown up there.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"How about when you taught me how to say Raxicoricalfallapitorius?" she beamed both at being able to say the word and at being able to find a way to use it in a sentence. "If you're willing to be so patient with me," she asked, "why not with them, yeah. They're just like me," she paused, frowning slightly, "a stupid ape." She'd used the old phrase deliberately. "Human," she added.

"Oh, Rose." The Doctor stepped forward, instantly pulling his Rosé into a hug. "You're no stupid ape."

He put his chin on the top of her head, realising what she'd just done. If anything, she was a genius. She'd just given him the counsel he'd been asking Patience for. Rose knew exactly how to say Gallifrey before she'd walked into the room. She knew what his girls needed. But she also knew coming straight out and telling him wouldn't have worked. He knew he could be a bit thick sometimes. So she'd done something only a genius could do. She'd come up with the perfect example, and asked him questions, letting him figure it out on his own. With the way Rose had used his late wife's name the ancient creature could almost wonder if her advice was something more than coincidence.

It wasn't just patience the girls needed. What they needed was for him to treat them like they were human. They didn't have their complete ancestral memory yet. They couldn't sense the telepathic emotions he'd been sending their way. There was no way they could instinctually trust him like a loomed child of his house would. They had been raised in an alien culture, taught an alien way of thinking. They were human. Human. Oh, how the Doctor wanted to hit himself in the head. The way he'd been handling things would have been like eliminating half of a conversation and still expecting the other party to understand.

The Time Lord realized what he needed to do. It was so simple. He needed to treat them as though they were human. He needed to make sure all of his communication was verbal or body language. He needed to take the time to explain things thoroughly, and simplify his answers with examples. He needed to make sure the time trips were more fun, and let them choose where they wanted to go. The Doctor froze.

Choose. He repeated the word in his mind, instantly worrying. Choice was something all humans craved. No. Not craved. Needed. Choice. But it was something young Time Lord children could never have. They had to be trained, conditioned. It was a life of duty and learning. Giving them anything else was dangerous, especially when to do so young. Even as children, they were still Time Lords, children with great power.

The Doctor closed his eyes and held Rose a little tighter. The old alien was going to have to think about this.

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Upon leaving the medbay, Cathryn headed to Bec's room to see if the other girl wanted some company amidst her understandable frustration. Her hand was on the door knob about to turn it but froze when she heard the evident sounds of a shower taking place. Now that she thought of it, she had to admit, she felt rather grimy especially after their visit to the Louvre. Her skin and hair felt oily while her clothing… she glanced down seeing that her jeans and sweater had been removed to be replaced by a pair of teal blue looking hospital attire essentially resembling a set of scrubs.

Briefly, she felt indignant at even this violation but she shook her head wearily. _Why bother?_ It was small in comparison to everything the Doctor had done before. Changing their clothing almost seemed trivial. She headed to the room that had mimicked her own back at home; however the window still reflected the shifting climate as a response to her own emotional discord. Storm clouds billowed as the rain came down. She could even hear it splattering on the window pane in a continual resonance echoing throughout the rest of the area. The wallpaper had turned to a dark forest green and when she smelled the air, she could almost feel the lingering drops of water that were present outside. The sensation was that persistent and felt so real providing to Cathryn a comforting impression. This was the TARDIS likely in her attempt to make an accord or peace offering and although Cathryn had written about the TARDIS previously, she never thought to experience how the mind of the sentience would work until she was encountered by the very evidence of her handiwork. Although she did ponder the ability of the TARDIS to do so. She knew the sentience 'got inside her brain' as were the words by the ninth Doctor but in contrast to Amber's story, 'Reality', it did not feel like a pressure on the back of her skull. She frowned briefly, pondering the notion. _Would I feel anything?_ Rose didn't seem to. In fact, she had been surprised and angry at the notion of the TARDIS entering her mind. If there was a pressure….Cathryn grimaced, not liking the idea at all. It didn't resound well since she had been a constant migraine sufferer and she felt nothing in her head to support the concept. Perhaps a subtle warmth in the far corner of her mind but then that alone could be her imagination.

Dismissing it, she headed to the bathroom that was connected to her room, internally pleased, although she wouldn't admit it aloud, to see the construction of the bathtub, large while considerably ornate done in limestone yet fully functional given the design. She turned the taps to fill it with hot water while finding various oils on the nearby shelf to soak in. Lavender and jasmine was what she resulted in choosing, breathing in the wondrous floral scent as she discarded her clothes and stepped inside the bathtub. She closed her eyes, letting her mind drift away from the Doctor and everything he represented. Her current predicament. No. In her thoughts where her imagination still lingered, she was free from the boundaries of this place, to traverse elsewhere, momentarily content at the leisure in doing so, fond to dream this world away and be in a place so fundamentally more appealing than where she currently was.

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After Cathryn took her leisurely bath, she considered knocking on Bec's door. _No_. She thought after a moment. Tea. They might both be in desperate need of the beverage especially after that encounter. Black tea or herbal. Both did their job in helping to ease her tension and Cathryn loved experimenting with blends. Mixing teas with various spices. It was why she didn't prefer bag tea since loose leaf captured more flavor and gave her so many more options. In the kitchen, he did have a variety so she chose Assam flavor, mixing it with ground chocolate, cardamom and vanilla. "I hope Bec likes it," Cathryn muttered to herself as she watched the filter seep inside the hot water. Footsteps sounded behind her. _The Doctor?_ she thought feeling uneasy. She was still upset from her confrontation and even the lavender bath did not do its work to calm her. If he approached her with another needle in hand…. She turned, holding her breath, releasing it in one swift exhale to find Bec standing in the doorway.

The smile Bec extended to her friend felt hollow, and she quickly let it drop. She felt better for having scrubbed the grime of the last few days away, and yet she knew that she was still just as deep in it as she had been before. She absentmindedly toyed with her bottom lip. The sensitive sting of her fingertip was a welcome distraction from the internal sting she was ignoring. After her shower, she had sat and played the guitar that had been left for her until she couldn't press the metal strings down any longer. She'd run herself through finger-picking exercises, and played nursery rhymes that she sang to her boys. She only knew a handful of chords with any confidence, but, as most nursery rhymes often needed no more than three chords, she was able to play enough to get by for her purposes. However, while playing the guitar helped to calm her from the stresses at home, it wasn't enough when she was imprisoned by a narcissistic and delusional alien who felt no remorse for the suffering he inflicted.

"I showered for ages," she muttered bitterly. "Probably didn't put a dent in his hot water." She sighed to herself, then tried to push her feelings aside, focusing instead on the girl trapped with her.

"Sorry about before," Bec said softly, feeling guilty for letting her anger get away from her. "I didn't..." She shook her head. "I hope I didn't ruin everything," she concluded bleakly, thinking of their plans to escape. She slowly walked up and joined Cathryn at the bench, sorting through the identical mugs to find one she was happy with.

Cathryn only shook her head. "If you didn't, I certainly put the extra nail in the coffin." The kettle started to whistle and she removed it from the stove. "I told him my grandfather was nothing like him and thanked God for that." She only smiled briefly thinking of her grandfather, what memories she did have. His patience. He taught her to play a little on the organ he owned and gave her instruction on singing. He was affectionate and loved his grandchildren deeply. "I then said I would rather he kill us both and that would be a mercy compared to living for centuries with him." She bit her lip. "You shouldn't apologize. He never bothered to explain anything or give us any respect. He treats no better then animals." Her tone was fierce. "And I told him so."

Bec nodded, feeling her guilt at her actions easing to know Cathryn felt the same way, but she also internally froze at her choice of words. "Centuries," she whispered, thinking it sounded like personal hell. "He can't be right, can he?" she begged rhetorically. She didn't want him to be right. She didn't want to be Time Lord, and she certainly didn't want to be from him. "My Granny... She's nothing like _him_. "

Cathryn's face softened. "Of course she's not." She pressed her lips together. "Bec, I was just speaking from what I knew about the life span from what I used to read online." She shrugged. "One regeneration can extend from fifteen hundred to two thousand years." She paused, thinking about her rant to the Doctor. Had she really said anything damaging? Would she have to utilize another half-truth to conceal it? No. Not really. She said 'live forever'. That information could be taken various ways. "But we're not, Bec. We can't be. I may know nothing about my great grandparents but my grandfather doesn't even remotely resemble him." She shook her head. "That would be an insult to his memory." She took a deep breath. "Just the injections. He's drugging us and…" Her voice trailed as another pair of footsteps entered the kitchen and she whirled around to see Mickey who looked rather downcast upon facing the two girls. He actually liked them and he knew what he did to Bec might seem like a form of betrayal after how they tried to help him.

He hesitated, before looking at Bec. "I'm sorry," he managed. "Didn't want to believe him when he said you needed them but you looked sick. Really done over. Couldn't see me straight and I wouldn't stand there and do nothin' if he might've been right." He knew how he would feel if their positions were reversed and he detested taking the Doctor's side on this. _Just this one thing,_ he thought, remembering how pale Bec was. Her shaking. _She wasn't right. Like a whole 'nother person._ Mickey winced at the reflection. "I know after you helped me…" What else could he say? Mickey honestly thought they could be friends with him but with what he did… he had to make a choice and if Bec had died, forget the Doctor or Rose, he would never forgive himself.

"It wasn't your fault, Mickey," Bec told him offering a gentle smile. "Thanks for looking out for me." She grimaced slightly. "And sorry for, you know, attacking you slightly..." She offered him a grin that was in equal parts cheeky and contrite. She felt so ashamed of what she'd done, not what she'd said to the Doctor, but the way she'd attacked Rose and Mickey. Maybe Mickey was right. That hadn't been like her at all.

"No problem," the young man answered with a grin. "The three of us, we've got ta stick together. Though, you're stronger than you look."

Bec scoffed in amusement. "I'm not sure if I should take that as a compliment or an insult," she teased. "Umm," she began softly. "Is Rose alright?"

"Nah, she's fine," Mickey answered with a wave of his hand. "You just caught us by surprise, was all."

Bec turned away, her frustration at their situation and the man who caused it leaking through once more. "I just wish we could do something, to get him back, to _thank_ him for what he's done..."

"Maybe we could." Cathryn glanced at Mickey with some uncertainty. She pondered whether he would think himself above such petty schemes or-

"No, of course we can!" The young man broke out in a grin. He knew the Doctor hadn't told either of the girls his plans to sedate them and Mickey had been frustrated at how the Time Lord in question treated the girls. Of course he found out that Cathryn actually consented to the injection and Bec only panicked when she found out that sedatives were added. _Who wouldn't?_ As far as he was concerned, the Doctor needed to be brought down a peg or two. And he wasn't above antics to complete it. "I'll help," he volunteered. "Anythin'. Promise. Won't breathe a word." He raised his eyebrows. "Any ideas?" Considering who these girls were, they might have more insight then he did.

"A couple things." Cathryn paused in thought. "The start of an idea really. The Doctor loves sugar. Is addicted to the stuff." She gave Bec a shrug, clenching her jaw. "What if his beloved little product made a disappearance? Or there's ginger beer."

"Ginger beer?" Mickey asked and Cathryn let out a smirk.

"We have your word you'll keep this quiet?" the brunette verified, glancing at him as the three huddled closer.

"I'll take it to my grave," he announced in equal parts humour and equal parts solemnity.

"Mix a little ginger ale with alcohol, he'll become utterly wasted!" She burst out laughing.

"Wasted?" Mickey posed in clarification, unfamiliar with the American slang.

"Oh, very drunk." Cathryn paused. "Laggered?" She remembered a bit of her British slang from when she visited London in her reality and Mickey's face started to dawn in comprehension.

"Pissed," Bec added with a grin. "But sugar... You know, I once made my mum a cuppa, but I didn't read the container when I put the sugar in. She ended up with very salty tea." She smirked, imagining the Doctor's face mirroring the disgust her mother had shown. "Rather than just tossing the sugar, we could tip it out and replace it with something more... flavoursome..." She giggled wickedly at the idea.

Cathryn chuckled. "Probably would be simpler then attempting to spike his beverage." Her laughter only increased at Mickey who was already rifling through the shelves pulling out the large container of sugar and various small canisters of salt.

"Someone's already enthusiastic." She said with amusement to Bec as Mickey tossed them back a grin.

"Oh you bet. 'Specially when it comes to him." The young man turned to the two girls who were taking out bowls to assist in the transition. "His highness needs a reminder…." He glared fiercely at the sugar as if it was a personal representation of all that the Doctor encompassed as he tossed the condiment into the waiting bowl.

"Does Rose have sugar in her tea?" Bec asked. "Because, if she does, you might want to make her a cup so she doesn't get caught up in this."

"Eh," Mickey shrugged. "Most of the time, I make her coffee. Her Mum makes the tea but she just takes it with a couple of sugars."

"Ah." Cathryn poured out her tea blend into a waiting series of cups. "Well, she hasn't tried mine." She gave a frown, shaking her head at the thought of coffee. She never cared for it even when it was supposedly traditional for Americans to drink the stuff. It left an unpleasant aftertaste in her mouth besides.

"Try wha'?" Rose's voice echoed in the kitchen, rubbing her eyes as she took in the trio gathered around the kettle. "Oh, you made tea, yeah?" It actually smelled rather pleasant to her. "I can prepare my own cup, Mickey. You don' have to-"

"But he already did it for you," Cathryn said easily as the young man turned to offer Rose the previously concocted beverage. "I have…." Her voice trailed as her thoughts drifted to back home. "Had a friend who knew just how I took my tea. Made it just the way I liked it without even asking. Good friends like that are hard to find." She inhaled deeply, lifting her own mug. At least, she didn't have to contend with sugar. She only took her tea with a dash of whole milk or half in half. Mickey briefly cast her a grateful expression mixed with one of sympathy and the brunette swallowed. Rose was too devoted to the Doctor to ever side with them in her observation but Mickey, well, with him, he might just know what it was like to be put in such a confounding position. He had lost Rose to a Time Lord. It was hardly even a fair fight.

"We're going to get home," Bec promised her softly, stepping closer to her friend. "We have to."

Rose glanced away. She could see how much they wanted to be home, but she'd also seen how much the Doctor needed them. As long as she'd known him, she'd never seen the Doctor so concerned for the welfare of others, so devoted to their care, as he had been for Bec and Cathryn since they'd arrived. She thought of the hours he'd spent painstakingly monitoring and treating them after that trip to the Lourve, his devastation when she found him in the library. She couldn't say anything to them yet, but she hoped they'd come to see how much he obviously cared about them.

She sipped her tea. _Actually, it wasn't too bad_ , she thought appreciatively.

Bec pulled an extra mug out and placed it deliberately next to the teapot, then she took her cup Cathryn had made for her and sat at the table in a prime position to enjoy the show, hoping the tea wouldn't go cold before the Doctor made his inevitable appearance. While she waited, she started to think about finding something to eat. Cereal, pancakes, scrambled eggs on toast, sausages with fried mushrooms and tomatoes... The longer she thought about it, the more extravagant her breakfast ideas became, but she simply sat and sipped her tea, not actually having the motivation to follow through with her internal suggestions.

"Am I interrupting?" The Doctor spoke carefully upon entering the kitchen, finding both his girls and companions inside. He raised his eyebrows in Rose's direction and she gave him a brief look. The one he knew. _Patience._ He reminded himself but what Cathryn and Bec had said to him in turn ran through his mind in equal measure. He knew how volatile humans were. His girls were no exception and especially with the transition they were going through, their tempers were heightened but each one expressed a wish for death rather then being with him. That had affected him more profoundly then they could even imagine. It was a statement sure of letting him know how much they despised him and everything he was struggling to do. _I'm just trying to keep them alive._ His thought was one of despair as he ran his hand through his hair while swallowing in trepidation, attempting to keep his calm demeanor.

"Who made the tea?" The Time Lord asked. It wasn't a blend he smelled before and was readily familiar with.

"Cathryn did." Rose was nursing her cup. She could taste the chocolate and the spices. She just might want another even if she was more prone to drink coffee. "Doctor, you should try it."

"By all means." Cathryn said, her tone still. "I made far too much already." Her fingers tightened around her mug in brief apprehension and Mickey cast her a knowing smirk. His back was turned to the Doctor so the Time Lord didn't see the young man's expression.

His hearts lifted hopefully at her invitation, at Cathryn's inclusion of him, and that wasn't an opportunity he was about to miss. He quickly stepped forward and poured the tea into the cup that had been left for him.

"Ahh, you might enjoy it more without the sugar," Bec's hesitant voice said softly. She pressed her lips together; biting them firmly at the look Mickey shot her. She wasn't about to give the game away, but she wasn't usually a fan of practical jokes having been the target within her own family for years. Now, apart from something like short sheeting a bed, she thought about what her own reaction would be. She didn't like the Doctor, but pranking him somehow felt more cruel than yelling at him had, and she hoped they didn't hurt his feelings too much.

The Doctor heard the nervous tone in her voice, but at least she was making an effort to talk to him civilly. His mood brightened considerably. Maybe their relationship wasn't as dire as he feared. Maybe their words were simply them taking out their anger at him in a bad situation rather than how they truly felt.

"Oh, don't worry about him," Rose told them, her tongue between her teeth. "With his sweet tooth, he'd have sugar straight from the tub if we weren't here to pull him up."

Bec nodded, remembering seeing the Doctor eat jam from the jar with his fingers in someone's kitchen. Had they already done that episode, or... she stared at her cup momentarily as she searched through her memory for the reference. _'Fear Her'?_ She nodded to herself, except when she pulled the memory to the forefront of her mind, she imagined herself snatching the jar away before he stuck his fingers in it. Disgusting habit. It was something her brothers used to do when they thought no one was looking.

She glanced up, watching the Doctor stir his 'sugar' into his tea. Well, after what he'd done to them, she was just going to let herself enjoy this, she decided.

Cathryn felt a trace of guilt at seeing his clearly hopeful expression but still it hardly countered every hardship they endured. Being dragged on board. Forced to sleep numerous times. Being sedated. Having Bec panic in response as he chased her down in what must have been a terrifying experience. All their choices essentially eradicated. This might not be much, but it was a statement of sorts. One she hoped he might start to grasp even with his limited understanding of human emotions and needs.

The Time Lord in question looked at the two while absentmindedly, taking a long sip of tea expecting the soothing taste of sugar only to nearly choke and start coughing at the horrendous quantity of salt present in the tea. _Salt?_ He leaned over the sink as Rose stood up in alarm. _How did salt…?_ And with his senses, the taste was only amplified so the residual of the condiment still lingered long after he spat it out into the sink.

"Doctor?" Rose was already filling a glass of water as the three others behind her were chuckling in the apparent success of their prank. She pushed it into his hand before turning on Mickey. "You did this, yeah?" Her expression was now indignant.

"Oh, don't blame him." Cathryn shook her head. "Our idea." She gave a shrug as the Doctor turned to face her. "Still taking eight spoonfuls of sugar with each cup of tea?" She remembered reading how much each regeneration took and the answer made her queasy. Still, she knew the Eleventh Doctor would only be worse. _Now his sweet tooth_ …. she frowned. "I was doing you a favor. After all, I think diabetes runs in the family." She knew that Time Lords didn't get diabetes and that was only on her father's side so her comment was made out of sarcasm. A brief feeling of longing filled her when she considered her father who only had a year left to live. If their plan worked, would she make it back in time to say good-bye?

Bec sniggered into her own tea having watched his expression contort into one of revolted disgust, deliberately forcing down her own queasy guilt to enjoy the moment. After what he'd done, she reminded herself, a little salty tea was nothing. All the same, she looked away, thinking about just how vile salty tea would taste. _Did he really have that much 'sugar'?_ she wondered. She hadn't seen him add the salt to his drink as he'd had his back to the table. All the same, with that much sugar, why bother flavouring the water with tea?

He glanced at Cathryn analytically, his mind turning over what she claimed his girls had contrived. _'Eight spoonfuls of sugar,'_ he thought, repeating her words in his mind. She knew exactly how much he put into his tea but this could be the emergence of her ancestral memory or she was simply by nature, really observant. Either way, a definitive Time Lord trait and while the stunt seemed childish, he had done worse things in his Academy days. That behavior was in a sense, promising to him. _Salt in the sugar jar._ The old Time Lord suddenly chuckled at the stunt while pouring himself another cup of tea, this time successfully finding the sugar where it had been hidden in the shelves. Oh, that brought back some memories alright. He had been quite the prankster and how could he begrudge his girls for taking after him this way?

Cathryn only gazed at his back as she looked at Bec rather crestfallen. He laughed at her. That was his only reaction. He found humour at their expense.

He shot a glance at Bec. Despite her words barely and hour ago, she had tried to indirectly warn him about the prank. He smiled to himself faintly. If she tried to protect him from something as innocent as a prank that implied her earlier words had been chosen because they hurt, not because they were true. Although, he found it interesting that she instinctively knew him so well, knew how best to hurt him, when the family bond had yet to settle into place. As it was, he had to concentrate to sense the bond. They didn't appear to be aware of it at all yet. That was another conversation he was dreading that would have to occur soon.

He took a sip of his newly prepared tea, swishing it slightly round his mouth to overwrite the last remnants of the salty concoction.

Bec relaxed, surprised by how relieved she felt when he didn't react badly. It had only been a bit of fun, but there was every chance that he could have been upset or, worse, angry at what they'd done. _No more_ , she decided, giggling silently at herself for inadvertently quoting the show again. But she sighed and pushed her humour and relief aside, letting despondency take it's place. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. They were still trapped. She could only hope that she and Cathryn could sneak away on Pete's world.

She pressed her lips together thinking. They still had to get the psychic paper, and, as simple as it seemed on the show to use, she wanted to get her hands on it and have a go before they needed it. With Jack, Rose had commented that you couldn't let your mind wander while handing it over, then handed Jack information about her own dating status. If she and Cathryn intended to use the psychic paper without incident, perhaps some practice was in order. However - she glanced in the Doctor's direction, but couldn't bring herself to look at him - how could she have a play with it and not seem suspicious? She continued mulling it over as she drained the last of her tea.

Briefly, Cathryn shook her head. Maybe she should have taken the approach with the ginger beer since he was apparently so nonchalant about the prank they tried to administer, missing in her mind what it represented. She glanced at Bec noticing the other girl staring at the cold box with a singular hunger but looked a bit too weary to take up the enterprise of cooking. Well, baking actually made Cathryn feel better. Not so much the act of enjoying the success of her venture but preparing a range of delicacies for others.

Motivated by something akin to instinct, she pushed herself up from her chair and started rifling through the cabinets in turn pulling out butter, sugar, sour cream, almond extract and her favorite spice of course, cardamom. It was time to introduce Bec to a tradition in her family and nothing accompanied tea better than this particular confection.

"Wha' are you makin'?" Rose asked with curiousity as Cathryn started to mix ingredients while taking an appraisal of the nutmeg before adding it to the mixture. _Bakin' with sour cream?_ the blonde thought in her natural inquisitiveness. _Bit odd. Mum never made anythin' like that._

"My family called it Norwegian Toast. Old recipe. Handed down. I just sort of feel my way through," the brunette explained as Bec raised her eyebrows in enquiry and Cathryn gazed back at her. "Hope you don't mind. Got the urge to bake and I'm adding a little extra flair to the recipe. You'll have to be my guinea pigs, I guess." She gave her friend a small smile, hoping it might cheer her out of her despondency. "I like to experiment and play around a bit."

"Sounds 'right to me," Bec answered with a shrug. She stood and put her cup on the bench, giving wide berth to the Time Lord leaning against it. "I'm not much of a cook, but can I help?"

The next few minutes were spent with Bec carefully following Cathryn's instructions while Rose told Mickey of some of her adventures. The Doctor stood back, silently taking the scene in. He'd noticed the way Bec had shied away from him, and he desperately hoped he could find a way to fix things properly, to not have his own flesh and blood reject him.

"How long did you say it has to cook for?" Bec asked, setting the timer on the stove.

"Half an hour for the first bake." Cathryn finished laying the rolls and carefully slid the tray into the oven.

"You know," the Doctor piped up. "Time Lord's have an acute sense of time. You probably don't need the timer anymore."

"Well, that just proves it," Bec replied without looking his way. She tried to keep her voice bored, but couldn't quite cover the spiteful tone altogether. "Because I've never had any sense of time. Always late."

The Doctor frowned slightly, turning his attention to Cathryn instead. "Where did you say the recipe came from?"

Cathryn briefly froze upon the inquiry but took a deep breath. "My mother. She taught me how to make it." There was a trace of uncertainty in her tone. That was true, the recipe had been handed down to her mother. "She likes to bake."

"But you said 'old family recipe'." The Time Lord quoted her words. "Was it passed down to her?"

Why was he so interested in a simple cookie recipe? His focus on her made her ill at ease. "Her parents, I guess passed it down. It's just a twist on the biscotti. That's all." She stared at the oven trying to maintain her effort at concentrating on the loaves in question. They had the tendency to spread right off the sheet and drip into the stove so she wanted to be careful.

"We had a similar recipe back home on Gallifrey," the Doctor started. "Of course, the spice was a bit different. Using ground up seeds of the Schlenk flower instead of cardamom but since that plant isn't around anymore…" He paused in thought.

Briefly, Cathryn clenched her jaw. "Gallifrey had daisies too, just like the Earth does. Is everyone who has the ability to plant a daisy a Time Lord or have ancestry?" She shrugged. "It is just a cookie."

"The ability to plant a daisy doesn't mean a person would know the exact measurements for a recipe unique to my family," he explained gently.

Bec turned away, forcing down a surge of anger. Everything had been alright for a few minutes there, and he'd had to go and ruin it with his insistence that he was family. _No_ , thought Bec. _You're not and don't even say it!_ But she bit her comments back again.

"Sorry, Cathryn," she deliberately interrupted, her voice hard. "That tea's gone cold. Can you show me how to make some more?" She was deliberately trying to steer the conversation away from his manipulations and the obviously painful topic.

The brunette swallowed. It was just a recipe and Cathryn even thought it was online. She was certain of it. She was….her hands trembled as she brought the ingredients forward to make another batch of tea but as she tried to measure the Assam, her hand shook splattering the tea leaves all over the counter. Her family. The recipe they used as a tradition every Christmas. Why did he have to try to take that to? Why did everything have to go so wrong? Tears sprang into her eyes and started trailing down her cheeks. "Why couldn't you leave it?" She asked. "Why couldn't this just be mine? A recipe? Something I tried to share? My father and I…..every Christmas we had this and I was…." She started choking on the words. "I'll never say good-bye. One year. One last Christmas. This recipe. You couldn't even let me have that?" Suddenly, she turned, unable to prevent herself from crying. He was trying to claim everything that was hers. All her precious memories, the subtle nuances simply taken. She never felt so alone before.

Bec nervously tittered to one side, before she stepped up and offered Cathryn a sideways hug. "It's a lie," she muttered in consolation. "You know it is. Rule one."

"I'm not lying," he told them with a heavy sigh. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "How about we get out for a while," he offered after a moment. "See the sights. Explore the universe? Soon as you finish cooking, eh?"

"You mean a real trip? Not just to France, yeah?" Mickey asked.

Bec winced slightly. They were supposed to have travelled to the SS Madam De Pompadour immediately after leaving Sarah Jane behind. That was supposed to have been Mickey's first trip. Would that still be their destination? And if it wasn't, how could they fix it?

"It's okay," Bec murmured softly, but Cathryn's tears had already calmed somewhat.

"Why don't you two decide?" the Doctor offered remembering his talk with Rose. The promise he made to himself to extend more choices of where his girls could travel. To make this a little bit enjoyable for them. They had at least seven hours and thirty two minutes before they required a rest period, plenty of time to explore someplace new.

Cathryn glanced at Bec, wiping her eyes, taking a deep breath to get herself together. She had to remain on course and if he was offering to let them decide, it was at least somewhat of a decent sign that their plan for 'Pete's World' was still a functional one in theory. But they needed to visit the space station for which Madame De Pompadour could be accessed. Well, this would prove to be an intriguing if not seen as a somewhat contrived attempt to get the Doctor on route.

"I always wanted to see how a space station works," Cathryn said.

"What?" Mickey looked at her in surprise. "A space station? Wha's so special about that?"

She gave a shrug. "I watched this one film that ended up on a futuristic space station. It was a favorite of mine and I've been interested in seeing one in person." She was careful in how she specified things. At least she thought the movie ' _Interstellar'_ ended on a space station.

"A space station, eh?" He glanced at Bec. "Does that sound alright with you?"

Bec giggled to herself as a quote from Ben Kenobi slipped through her mind. _'That's no moon. It's a space station.'_ "Yeah, I wouldn't mind a Star Wars moment," she agreed.

"Yeah, those films were classic's," Mickey piped up. "So is there some kind of Death Star out there we could see?"

The Doctor started to groan, to refute him, but Bec's voice broke in first.

" _No. Not_ a Death Star," she countered adamantly. "Not a weapon like that." Bec shuddered at the thought of a real Death Star existing, at all the death and destruction it caused. She didn't understand how someone could kill like that, to have so little regard for any life apart from their own. Besides, the space station they needed to go to wasn't a weapon.

The Doctor's lips quirked at Bec's words. Despite her temper she was adverse to weapons. She was more like him than she wanted to admit.

"Well," he began, pushing himself away from the bench. "I'll go find us somewhere to explore, and you can all join me when you're ready. But," he turned to Cathryn. "Is it possible you could save me a bit of your Norwegian Toast?" he asked, deliberately utilising the same name for the Gallifreyan snack she had used.

Cathryn readily breathed a sigh of relief. He was referring to it by the actual and correct title rather than some Gallifreyan imposed contraction of the pastry. After all, she was quite sure the recipe was online and the name Norwegian Toast implied it was from Norway. Admittedly, she had to say that was rather odd since a recipe she used so often as tradition came from a place she lacked any known descent. But her grandfather had traveled on the cruise ships and picked up all kinds of things while doing so. Recipes couldn't have been that unusual.

"There should be plenty and I can't eat that much sugar at once." Cathryn said. "Gives me a splitting headache."

The Time Lord nodded but he was admittedly uneasy at both his girls varying diet. All told, they hadn't consumed much on board, Cathryn especially. Every time a meal started to be constructed there had been one excuse after another. Although, she seemed to drink her weight in tea, that appeared to be all she had consumed. Bec stood only a little better but not by much. He wanted to give both his girls more choices but if they continued to not eat enough nutrients, his hands would therefore be forced. This transition was delicate enough without the simple carbs and proteins that were needed to sustain it.

He stepped out of the kitchen, heading to the console room, an idea blooming in his mind of where to go that would be safe and enclosed for both his girls to visit. Perhaps they could have a little picnic on board to complement the Gallifreyan treat Cathryn just seemed to know how to make. For him, it had been a century or two since he tasted it. But with Rose's look she flashed in his direction and Cathryn's reaction, he decided once again to reassert his patience. Once the bond became more pronounced and their ancestral memory started to better integrate, both his girls would start to make sense of their actual origins. He turned his attention back to the navigation switches programming in a new destination.

Back in the kitchen, Cathryn took the two loaves out of the oven as Bec and Mickey looked on. Rose had excused herself to 'assist' the Doctor, which left Cathryn to begin slicing the bread while the spicy smell of cardamom filled the air.

"Jus' like him to claim a recipe only in your family as his too," Mickey muttered. He had watched the scene, appalled. Even his gran came up with her own recipes when she was alive, raising him when his own parents couldn't cope with having a child. The loss was still raw with him so in his way, he knew what Cathryn was going through.

The brunette turned, giving him a brief smile, as she put the slices back into the oven. "Thank you, Mickey." She shook her head, glancing at Bec. They both knew his background. That he was and felt like an orphan. Often forgotten, especially when it came to Rose and the Doctor. "You shouldn't let them take you for granted," she managed to chide gently. "You're better than that. Even if Rose doesn't say it, doesn't mean others can't see it."

The young man seemed faintly pleased by this expression as he glanced between the two. "They're used to it by now. Getting between those two…" But there was a bit more enthusiasm in his voice. "So why a space station?" he asked.

Cathryn simply shrugged, pressing her lips together. "I don't know. Always thought it might be fun to see what one would like in the future, wouldn't you?" She actually knew Mickey would enjoy the S.S. Pompadour and be excited about upon arrival. "As long as Darth Vader isn't on it, that is," she said, by way of a joke, raising her eyebrows to Bec.

"Yeah, sorry," Bec said, grimacing in mock contrition. "I admit it: I watched a bit of SciFi," she told them, as though she was admitting to a deadly sin. "But you've got to admit: Darth Vader is pretty awesome. Mean, yes, but awesome. My friend once suggested that-" she cut off suddenly and looked away, no longer playing. "I always liked bad guys best in movies," she finally continued softly, her tone verging on depressed. "My friend suggested that was why I liked your stories, and that show so much, because he wasn't a hero." She glanced at Cathryn, knowing the girl would understand that she meant the Doctor.

"What show?" Mickey asked, confused by the sudden change of mood.

"Oh, nothing too exciting," Bec dismissed. "Although…" She turned back to Cathryn. "That place where we want to go, isn't it more of a space ship?" she asked, trying to be vague enough that Cathryn would understand but Mickey wouldn't.

"Yeah, I think it was…." Cathryn's voice started to trail as she thought of the episode, _'The Girl in the Fireplace'_ but caught Mickey looking at her in confusion. "I mean 'is'. Sorry. Sometimes I get the two mixed up." She frowned. "Especially in space…." She scratched the back of her neck in embarrassment.

"Oh, I would love to see a space ship!" Mickey started excitedly. "First real trip out. Actual space. See how one works." He grinned. "Blimey, if I knew you both wanted to go on one…." He paused. "I'll tell the Doctor. Neither of you will have to put up with him." He was already out of the kitchen and down the corridor, chattering away excitedly.

"Right," Cathryn said. Silence fell in the kitchen for several moments as she finally decided to put on another kettle for tea, filling the brass pot with water. "A spaceship filled with clockwork droids. That's my idea of fun." She shuddered remembering the episode. What if Bec and herself were found compatible? What would happen if-?

"A space ship filled with what now?" The Doctor's voice echoed behind them and Cathryn turned to Bec, feeling panic start to overwhelm her. What had she done? She thought the two of them were momentarily alone.

The Doctor had heard the tail end on their conversation with Mickey, including their desire to visit a spaceship instead of a station, as he drew near the kitchen. Mickey, in his excitement, hadn't even noticed the Doctor approaching down the hall from the opposite direction, turning instead to find the console room using the long route he'd been shown rather than the short cut that the Doctor and Rose knew.

"Like in Star Wars," Bec quickly chimed in. "You know, R2D2 and C3PO?" She quickly turned away and changed the subject. "How much longer until those biscuits are ready?"

The Doctor studied them both suspiciously, not believing Bec's explanation. There was nothing 'clockwork' about the droids on Star Wars, so why would Cathryn have made such a comment if Star Wars had been what she was thinking of?

"Is it really that important?" Perhaps the best defense was a good offense. Cathryn pulled the cookie sheet containing the Norwegian Toasts out of the stove as the spicy smell of cardamom filled the air. "The two of us have seen so many movies put together, not to mention science fiction. It's hard to keep track." She grimaced at his still suspicious expression.

"Cathryn,' He sighed. "I've encountered clockwork droids before." How acute was their psychic sensitivity?

"Of course you have." Cathryn muttered. "We must be psychic, then because, hey. Bec happened to see a show where aliens posed as Egyptian gods. That's real here too. Oh wait…" She paused, briefly referencing Stargate. "No, you said that was rubbish."

"That's not the same thing." He started firmly but glanced at Bec remembering the reference back in the museum. The telly show he was going to check into later but didn't. Humans using a wormhole device to fight aliens. It resonated somehow with him. He inhaled briefly through his nose and Bec now the subject of scrutiny was justly alarmed.

"Let's change the subject." She tried, feeling uncomfortable.

Quickly, Cathryn cut the bigger segments of the cookies into two and pushed them onto a plate with a spatula offering it as a tempting distraction. "Want one?" She said, raising her eyebrows to Bec. The lure of sugar was critical. After all, one and a half cups went into making the recipe alone.

"Thanks." She took the proffered biscuit and tried it. It was still warm and hadn't completely hardened yet, but the taste was so good and familiar it seemed to melt in her mouth. "That's good!" she exclaimed. "My Granny used to make biscuits just like these!" she excitedly told the other girl. She froze suddenly, realising what she'd just said, almost feeling the eyes of the Time Lord burning into her back. She glanced back at him, a guilty fear flooding her. He was merely offering her a significant look, his eyebrows high. _'I told you so,'_ he seemed too be saying.

Bec quickly looked away. "Sorry," she said to her friend, abandoning the biscuit like it was poison, and she quickly fled from the room.

Cathryn had seen it. Watched his knowing stare meet Bec who had ran out of the kitchen and then seemed in utter dismay at her reaction.

"Really?" she asked in disdain, getting his attention as she put the plate on the counter. "You couldn't just let the matter of a stupid cookie recipe slide?"

"Cathryn, it's not stupid." The Doctor seemed wont to protest. "It's a recipe from Gallifrey. The fact the two of you had them before is-"

"-because it was ONLINE!" she exclaimed. "We could get the recipe right on the internet. The food network had it too! But you know, fine. Right. Maybe they're Time Lords too!" She seethed. "Why don't you go and kidnap them?!"

"The recipe might have been posted there at a bit of a later date. Don't you think your family could have shared it or-?"

"Doctor," Rose interrupted him. She knew him. At the same time, she knew he was getting carried away in his excitement just as she knew this was a sore topic for both the girls. "I thought you migh' need some help with the picnic and-"

"Picnic." Cathryn looked at the pair. "You know, that's a great idea. You all go on, have your picnic. We'll just sit this one out." She turned from him furiously and headed in the direction of where Bec had fled down the corridor.

The Doctor's hearts sank. What had he done wrong? He was simply trying to connect with the two of them and he thought the recipe was an easy concept of their developing ancestral memory to explain but their reactions had been so…. he shook his head in sheer frustration while Rose put a hand on his arm.

"I could talk to them, yeah?" Rose asked. "Or maybe Mickey…"

He gave a painful sigh. "No, I should do it, this time. Mickey has caused enough trouble on his own." The old Time Lord's shoulders dropped as he ventured to follow where his girls might have departed.

"These are rather good." Rose had taken a bite of the cookie, enjoying the flavor as her tongue danced along her teeth. "But I think I migh' have tasted somethin' like them before, yeah. Bit like biscotti only a tad different." The Doctor glanced at her in surprise. "They're still jus' human," she whispered to him, before placing a piece of the Norwegian toast into his palm. "Why not enjoy the pastry for wha' it is now?" she asked. "You're tryin' to rush it." Rose gave him that teasing grin. "It will spoil the flavor." With those words, she quietly left the kitchen to rejoin Mickey who had been left to wait in the console room.

Bec briefly retreated to her assigned room, not because she wanted to be in that room, but because she wanted the guitar that had been left for her. She knew that she was supposed to view everything in it as hers, but she refused to accept that this was her new reality.

She grabbed the guitar and quickly left the room. She briefly considered heading to the library, but the thought of being chased through those stacks of books had her quickly discarding that idea. Instead she randomly opened doors until something appealing caught her eye. She finally settled on the room with the pool, although, calling it a room with the open sky above her somehow felt wrong, even though she knew she was still in the TARDIS.

She sat, ignoring the tenderness of her fingertips, as she ran through mindless fingerpicking exercises, slowing to a pause when someone followed her into the room. She smiled and called Cathryn over, even though the other girl had already found her by following the sound of the guitar.

"Sorry about," she shrugged. "You know..." She absentmindedly strummed the accompaniment to Twinkle, Twinkle as she spoke.

Cathryn only rolled her eyes. "The recipe is online. It's ridiculous, stupid and…" She clenched her jaw. "I hope you don't mind. Told him we won't be joining then on their little picnic."

Bec seemed to raise her eyebrows in question to this and Cathryn just grimaced. "Yes, seriously. They intended to have a picnic on that spaceship."

"Yeah, it'll be a picnic, but who for?" Bec asked sarcastically.

"I know. Whose brilliant idea was that?" Cathryn shook her head in utter refusal.

"If I recall, it was yours." The Time Lord's voice sounded behind them. "Mickey told me you two wanted to see a space ship. So, alright, then. I found us a space ship."

"Perhaps you misunderstood," Cathryn's voice was chilling. "We're not interested anymore so we're not going. You three have _fun_ without us."

"Then, none of us will leave the TARDIS." He looked at them firmly. Perhaps he was over zealous or overly enthusiastic in his attempts to show the origins of the Norwegian Toast recipe. After all, as Rose once again so clearly demonstrated, his girls needed patience and caution with coming to terms with their heritage. But at the same time, it seemed to him their intent was to sulk in such a manner befitting children. Patience was all very well, but he wouldn't consider leaving his girls on board the TARDIS alone with their medical requirements and monitoring. That was out of the question. He caught both of their expressions, ones that were mixed with panic and desperation as they exchanged a glance. It seemed to confirm a few of suspicions earlier. They seemed to suggest or encourage that he go aboard the ship, even clarified between themselves the location they wished him to visit, but appeared reluctant to accompany him on the journey.

"You shouldn't need us there." Cathryn licked her lips, feeling his gaze upon her. "We're tired right now anyway and-"

"You don't require sleep for another six hours and thirty six minutes." The Time Lord had been counting while both girls just seemed to look at him aghast.

"Oh, good," Bec agreed in a parody of good cheer. "Plenty of time to practice guitar and- Fancy a swim later?" she asked Cathryn, gesturing to the pool.

The Doctor ran his hand through his hair and turned on the spot trying to work out the best way to approach the situation, to reach his girls. "I gave you the choice. You chose a spaceship. And that's where we are," he told them, keeping his voice low and calm, hoping that might help to settle their obvious unease. "The others are waiting. Mickey is very enthusiastic. You don't want him to miss out, do you?"

Bec scowled at his deceptively gentle words as he deliberately tried to guilt them into conceding to him. "No. I'm not going there," she refused just as calmly. "I'm not..." She shook her head.

He knelt forward and crouched beside her where she sat with her guitar. "What are you so afraid of?" he asked softly, studying her closely.

She refused to meet his eyes and bristled under his gaze. "You're an idiot," she told him flatly. She knew he was asking specifically about the ship, but surely he would realise how tactless his question was if he stopped to think about it. She internally laughed bitterly to herself, supposing she now knew the source of her own lack of tact if she decided to ascribe to his mistaken premise of family.

"If there is some sort of danger on that ship, then I'm not leaving you behind. Either of you," he added, glancing at Cathryn.

She swallowed. Cathryn knew he had to get onboard that ship in order to seal the fractures the clockwork droids were puncturing in the universe after having taken apart the crew for spare parts. If neither girl left, then the damage could spread and she knew Reinette had significance to the Doctor. _Maybe if we just stay with him._ She cringed. Oh, that would get awkward, especially during the more intimate scenes between the two but perhaps that strategy would work in their favor for Pete's World. The two would keep in the path of least harm and lower the Doctor's suspicion of them if they appeared to decide not to run. Besides, where would they go in 18th century France? Especially, two women? It was a horrendous time for girls who were merely considered property of their family before they became commodities of their husbands.

"If…" Cathryn started, her hands trembled briefly. "If we go, you have to promise not to leave us behind….anywhere." She was thinking of the turning fireplace, the mirrors and everything that shifted as the Doctor impulsively moved through them on a sudden whim. "It's just, a space ship seemed interesting in movies but faced with the reality of it, well, it's…" She took a deep breath as Bec glanced at her sharply for which Cathryn exchanged a look to hopefully convey her intent.

"Intimidating?" The Doctor felt his hopes rise just a bit at Cathryn's admittance. They were frightened of their first adventure. Admittedly, a justified reaction especially after what happened to them in the Louvre. But from both their minds, due to the encounter with Sutekh and his telepathic intervention, he was able to again, sense their fear that they weren't able to conceal from him. Oh, that much was apparent by their elevated heart rates and pupil dilation. The bond was starting to grow from a distinct flutter to add that confirmation in his mind when they were subject to strong emotion. But what prompted their request to a spaceship and why did his granddaughter who treated him at hands length now appear insistent at extracting such a promise? The very pledge Cathryn asked him to make to stay with them seemed borne out of desperate and he gazed at her thoughtfully. _But_ _why would I leave them?_ For him, he had enough trouble with companions wandering off, much less what would happen if he lost sight of his girls. In that respect, he already calculated and prepared their dosages in advance, having them on his person should anything unexpected occur. Judging from their reactions and past experience, the Doctor knew to be primed, while therefore alert.

He glanced at Bec wondering whether she felt the same way as Cathryn did, attempting to discern the look she was casting in her friend's direction.

Bec nervously chewed on her lip. She knew what Cathryn was doing. She wanted to avoid the adventure altogether, despite how much she knew she would enjoy meeting Reinette. But she also didn't want to end up on the menu as spare parts for the ship.

She frowned, remembering the scene when the Doctor met Reinette as a little girl, remembering how afraid she was when he said the clockwork robots wanted her. She closed her eyes, pressing her lips together and biting them both, the pressure almost painful. What if it had been her own children? What if Matty or Micah were afraid of a real monster hiding under the bed. She shook her head; her own heart clenching at the fear that poor girl must have felt. Just the thought of those robots frightened her. How much more afraid would Reinette have been?

She nodded slowly, agreeing with Cathryn's terms. "Don't leave us behind," she said, but she struggled to put any strength behind her words.

She gently set the guitar down beside her, ignoring the Doctor's extended hand, his wordless offer to help her up, instead backing away slightly to give herself enough room to stand under her own strength.

The old Time Lord winced internally as Bec shied away from him again. It was more than just an act of defiance. She was afraid of him, he realised belatedly, his mind dwelling on the fear that was and had been prominent in her mind. He was still a source of her dread. Of all people, they should never fear him. He frowned to himself. If she feared him but didn't want him to leave them behind, how much more afraid was she of what awaited them on that ship?

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 **Authors' note:**

 **Sorry this chapter is a little late. I've been having internet problems.**

 **Thank you again to our friends Almadynis Rayne, Fan Fictional Authoress and LovelyAmberLight. We appreciate the help and support you continue to give us as we write.**

 **And to all our reader, thank you for sticking with us, and don't be strangers! :-)**

 _ **azaadin & emptyvoices**_


	6. Time Passage

**Chapter 6: Time Passage**

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The Doctor slowly stepped out into the rundown spaceship, his granddaughters close behind him and his companions following after. He quickly assessed the room, noticing the messy jumble of cables and repairs throughout the room.

"It's a spaceship," Mickey exclaimed unnecessarily. "Brilliant! Just what you wanted hey, Cathryn?"

"It looks kind of abandoned," Rose added, glancing around. "Anyone on board?"

"Well, let's have a look, shall we?" the Doctor answered easily. He ambled up to the controls and fiddled with the odds and ends scattered about, trying to understand how the ship could have ended up in such a state. He glanced at the various readouts as he went.

Bec hovered near the TARDIS as the others stepped away. Even Cathryn headed in the direction of the window Mickey would soon look out of. She bit her lip nervously. The Doctor was supposed to have had his amusing ramble about there not being anything dangerous on the ship, but, seconds into the episode, they had already caused changes to the dialogue. She supported herself, holding one hand on the corner of the Police Box, breathing shallowly through her mouth and trying not to notice the smell of cooking meat that the others would soon comment on. Just the thought of what those clockwork robots would do if they caught her almost had her fleeing back inside. Instead she took a steadying breath and slowly drew herself away from the safety of the TARDIS.

At an action from the Doctor that Bec could remember but couldn't see, a loud electronic squeal echoed through the room and the lights and controls came to life. Above her, the roof opened with a loud groan of machinery.

"Fifty first century," the Doctor was saying. "Dagmar Cluster. You're a long way from home, Mickey. Two and a half galaxies."

Bec looked up at the sight above her, frowning slightly. The sight was stunning and yet almost anticlimactic. She had expected to look up and be wowed by the sudden realisation that she was actually in space, but instead she felt like she was simply looking through a sun roof at the night sky. True, she had never seen a nebular stretched out above her, and yet she didn't experience the drop dropping awe that she had thought should hit her. It was beautiful, but it didn't feel real. She bounced on the balls of her feet, glancing at her feet as she did so, before turning her gaze back to the scene above her. The gravity did feel a little different, as though she was standing on a boat that was sinking with the waves, or on a descending plane. However, despite everything that had happened over the last few days, she still couldn't quite believe that she was in space.

Cathryn looked out the window in trepidation shifting her weight from one foot to another as she gazed at the various colours that composed the cluster. Vibrant hints of blues mixing with reds to form shades of pink against a background of stars. A dizzying sensation of vertigo started to overcome her. If she had been honest, she would have told them, she dreaded flying and had a perpetual fear of heights. The ringing in her ears only presented as evidence of that sensation. She tore her gaze away as Mickey looked out the window, hands clasped on both sides of the frame while he admired the phenomena. "It's so realistic." He exclaimed to Cathryn. "Don't you…" He paused seeing the expression on the girl's face. "What's wrong?"

Cathryn took a deep breath, trying to steel herself as she offered the young man her attempt at a smile uncertain of her success. "Nothing really. Just a little overwhelming at first, you know…?"

"Oh, you two, meet the universe." Rose gently put a hand on each of their shoulders. "See anythin' you like?" Her grin wide, tongue just barely behind her teeth.

The brunette only grimaced internally knowing the dialogue was out of place. That she should have been addressing Mickey alone. Still, she remained quiet, taking to looking at the ground rather than the overhead window just above her, now willing herself to just listen as she glanced back in the direction of her friend.

Nearby, the Doctor studied and tossed various bits and bobs around as he investigated the jumbled and mismatched controls. "Dear me, had some cowboys in here," he was saying. "Got a ton of repair work going on." His attention honed in on the monitor where the ship's engine feed was on display. "Now that's odd. Look at that. All the warp engines are going. Full capacity. There's enough power running through this ship to punch a hole in the universe, but we're not moving. So where's all that power going?"

As the Doctor and his companions discussed the missing crew, Bec briefly exchanged a glance with Cathryn, and then tried to tune out the conversation she knew so well, struggling to resist the urge to gag or worse at the vile aroma that she was trying to pretend away.

"Can you smell that?" the Doctor asked, testing her tenuous restraint.

"Yeah, someone's cooking," his companion answered.

"Sunday roast, definitely," Mickey added, as Bec finally turned away and began to heave quietly.

"I hateroast," Cathryn muttered before glancing back at her friend. "Bec?" she called softly in worry, hurrying to her side.

The Doctor looked over his shoulder to where Bec remained near the TARDIS, then sped over to her in worry, pulling out his screwdriver as he went. "What is it? What's wrong?" he asked quickly scanning her. He could find nothing physically wrong with her to cause her evident nausea and he began to consider sending her back into the TARDIS or even taking her to the medbay to scan her properly in case there was something his sonic had missed, but she shook her head at him.

"Smell… bad…" she whispered in disgust.

He looked on her in sympathy for a moment. The smell of cooking meat was a strong and potent aroma, and their developing senses were obviously making the scent far more distasteful than what their previously limited sense of smell was used to. There were plenty of things he could have offered to dull the experience for her, to help her to cope, but he knew it was better to leave their bodies to gradually adjust to the greater sensory input they were receiving rather than to impede their acclimatisation for the sake of their comfort as that would only make the experience worse once the full impact of their developing senses came into effect. He sighed briefly through his nose and rubbed her back as she breathed deeply and carefully through her mouth.

After looking over to make sure Bec was alright, Rose filled the place by the controls the Doctor had vacated. She knew it could be dangerous to simply press random buttons without knowing what they did, however her travels with the Doctor had not left her unlearned. She pressed a few familiar controls in a pattern she had been taught, and the small company turned towards the loud bulkhead door that opened itself.

"Are you alright?" Cathryn whispered as the other three wandered off to investigate.

"Yeah." Bec nodded with her eyes closed, trying not to think of the people who died to fill the ship with the rancid aroma.

Cathryn gave her a moment, understanding exactly what had sickened the other woman, and trying to resist a similar reaction. "Sorry," she continued as Bec got a hold of herself. "I know it's bad, but we need to keep up. You know we do."

Bec nodded again and allowed herself to be drawn towards the room. The Doctor was already crouching down, speaking to the little French girl, and they joined him on his vacant side, peeking curiously through the fireplace.

"Monsieur, what are you doing in my fireplace?" Reinette was asking politely.

"Oh, it's just a routine…" The Doctor searched for a suitably convincing lie. "Fire check," he concluded lamely. He quickly rushed along to distract the girl from his lacking explanation. "Can you tell me what year it is?"

"Of course I can! Seventeen hundred and twenty seven."

"Right. Lovely. One of my favourites." The Time Lord smiled amiably. "August is rubbish though. Stay indoors. Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for your help. Hope you enjoy the rest of your fire. Night, night!"

The five stood up as the girl offered her farewell.

"You said this was the fifty-first century," Mickey accused.

"Does this spaceship look like it comes from the seventeen hundreds?" Cathryn asked.

"She's right," the Doctor added. "This ship is generating enough power to punch a hole in the universe. I think we just found the hole." His mind was working furiously as he allowed himself to ramble. He could now see why Cathryn and Bec had been concerned to bring him to this ship. Having two distinct spatial and temporal points of the universe linked together could cause all kinds of damage to the timelines, including opening the whole of reality to the possibility of a cataclysmic paradox. He could sense the strain on the timelines now that he knew what to feel for, but, while the moment was in flux, time still felt stable. From experience, though, he knew that this stability could deteriorate at any moment, and it was imperative that he close the connection.

He continued rambling about language translation as he considered his granddaughters. Had they known to come to this ship as a form of precognition, that it was their future to have come here, or had they instinctively sensed the stress on the timelines and seen where the source of the disturbance originated? More and more he could see that he needed to properly assess their abilities, especially as those abilities were likely to increase as their physiology continued to change. He sniffed. But it would have to wait until he solved the problem of the doorway to France.

He turned and closely inspected the fireplace. Rose and Mickey stepped back, but Cathryn and Bec stepped forward, joining him in his scrutiny, but concentrating on the clock on the mantle. He didn't react to their action, but he noticed how deliberate they were when they stepped close, how they hid the way they gripped the mantle by studying it. "Gotcha!" he announced victoriously as he flicked the lever to revolve the fireplace.

"Doctor!" Rose cried out in surprise.

When the fireplace stopped, Cathryn and Bec glanced up at the broken clock, listening carefully for the ticking robot that they knew was hiding in the room.

Cathryn couldn't help herself as she immediately swept past the sleeping girl and towards the window, beating the Doctor as she pushed the curtain back to take in the scenery in front of her. For the first time in a while she smiled. "It's snow," she whispered to herself. "It's actual snow." It looked fantastical. Like a page from one of her calendars, which captured a Victorian fairyland at night. Baroque style palaces weaved around the landscape for which candles left lit, illuminated the windows casting a resonating glow.

"First time seeing snow?" the Doctor whispered to her drawing up next to Cathryn's side to take a look at the beautiful landscape. Bec joined them, but nervously studied the room rather than appreciating the view.

"No….well, once before but it was years ago prior to…" Cathryn's voice trailed. Before so many things in her life went wrong. Before an assailant had thought she was easy prey being in the same bible study group. It was that same church, which hosted the bible study that took them on a spiritual retreat to the snow when she had last seen it. Now looking at the beautiful imagery in front of Cathryn, it seemed like a lifetime ago.

The Doctor still despite the apparent nostalgia in her tone couldn't help but feel pleased that she seemed to inherit his love for snow by subconsciously whispering his very own sentiment. "One of these trips, I should take you to the Plain of Pamir." He started to grin with some enthusiasm remembering the journey he had taken in his first regeneration with his granddaughter Susan and his two companions accompanying him at the time. "Marco Polo called it the 'Roof of the World'. Bit of a high altitude in Central Asia. Got into a snowball fight before running into Kublai Khan." He was rambling and Cathryn glanced at him with a sense of exasperation, letting out a slow exhale.

"Doctor, in all honesty, I'm afraid of heights," she told him directly. "Tremendous vertigo." Not to mention, potentially being attacked by a Mongol Emperor who thought he had the right to claim territory just based on his presence was not her idea of a good time.

At this statement, the Doctor looked slightly crestfallen but his mind went to work at other potential possibilities of places with a relatively even terrain and a snowy climate. In the interim, their exchange had startled young Reinette as she sat up in bed, appearing alarmed at their presence.

The Doctor immediately hastened over to console her as Cathryn remained by the window to watch the scene unfold in front of her.

"It's okay," he said reassuringly. "Don't scream. It's me. It's fireplace man. Look." He already had his sonic out in his hand, swiftly lighting the unlit wick of the candle beside the young girl's bed. "We were talking just a moment ago." The Time Lord gave her an easy smile. "I was in your fireplace."

"Monsieur, that was weeks ago. That was months!" the little girl told him.

"Really?" the Doctor asked scratching his ear. He suddenly wondered if his girls' insistence that he keep them with him was due to the time discrepancies between the ship and the eighteenth century. Even though he suspected the minutes on the ship accounted for a significant time in France rather than being the other way around, if he was wrong and stepped away for minutes while the others had days or weeks, then by the time he came back he could have lost the only family he had left due to the energy requirements of their transition. He pushed the fear aside, determined to keep them both right by his side for the duration of their time on the ship. He turned and ambled back to the fireplace, tapping on it to listen. "Must be a loose connection. Need to get a man in."

Bec tensed slightly as she watched the scene play out before her. The ticking sound she could hear was still only very faint, nothing like she remembered from the show, and yet it was all she could hear as she remembered the monster under the bed that made that noise. She could clearly remember the music from the show, the soft tinkling tune that made the scene so creepy to watch, but its absence made the room and the monster within it more real and frightening. Her heart almost bleeding for Reinette, as the terrified girl's eyes flickered between the three strangers in her bedroom, little knowing the danger that lurked beneath.

"Okay, that's scary," the Doctor murmured, his eyes falling on the clock on the mantle.

"You're scared of a broken clock?" Reinette asked, her young tone almost disparaging.

"Just a bit scared, yeah," he admitted. "Just a little tiny bit, because, you see, if this clock's broken…" He quickly glanced around the room to confirm his suspicions. "…and it's the only clock in the room, then what's that?" The room seemed to pause as its occupants listened to the faint ticking.

Bec swallowed, frozen to the spot. The only reason she had stepped off the TARDIS in the first place was for the sake of the frightened little girl who sat across the room from her, and yet she herself felt too afraid to offer Reinette the comfort she needed. _What if it was Matty or Micah?_ She reminded herself. The robot had only attacked when the Doctor threatened it with his sonic. Yes, they had harvested the crew of their ship, but thus far they seemed to be attempting to slip by unobtrusively while in France. It wouldn't attack her if she didn't provoke it. She took a deep breath, steeling herself to brave the long walk to the bed a few metres away, even as her jelly filled legs refused to budge from their spot.

"Because, you see, that's not a clock," the Doctor continued, listening closely to the echoing sound. "You can tell by the resonance. Too big. Six feet, I'd say. The size of a man."

"What is it?" Reinette asked in a small voice.

Bec's eyes clouded with empathy and her resolve hardened at the girl's frightened words. She was _terrified_ , and Bec couldn't let her suffer alone. She shuffled forward half a step at a very slow time.

The Doctor strode back to the window by the girls, glancing behind the curtains as he concentrated on and narrowed in on the source of the ticking. "Now, let's think: if you were a thing that ticked and you were hiding in someone's bedroom, first thing you do, break the clock. No one notices the sound of one clock ticking, but two? You might start to wonder if you're really alone."

He slowly started to approach the bed, his eyes drawn to the small dark space beneath it. As he stepped passed her, Bec followed in his shadow, finding it far easier to approach the monster with the Doctor standing between them.

"Bec, stay back," the Doctor said, holding his arm out as a barricade.

"She's terrified," she replied in the same low voice.

"It's not safe," he warned her again.

She remembered again that the robot didn't attack the Doctor until he held his screwdriver threateningly. "I'll stay safe," she assured him.

The Doctor considered for a moment. He had half a mind to force her back again, to make her wait safely with Cathryn, but instead he lowered his arm.

From where they stood, Bec took one step down the stairs before stepping straight onto the bottom corner of the bed, never exposing her ankles to the monster underneath. She walked across the bed until she knelt down next to the girl, while the Doctor lowered himself to the floor.

"It's okay," the mother murmured comfortingly. She sat on her ankles facing the fireplace and gently reached out to the girl, drawing her into an embrace and deliberately placing herself between Reinette and where the clockwork robot would stand. Despite the bravery she was showing, the girl was shivering slightly, even though the room wasn't chilly. "Just stay on the bed. You're going to be okay."

Bec closed her eyes as she heard the buzz of the sonic. She could clearly picture the view under the bed from the show, but despite her memory, she still jumped with Reinette at the clutter and scrapping of movement. The back of her neck prickled coldly, and she slowly opened her eyes to meet those of the man before her as he sent her a wordless warning. Now that it was no longer muffled by the bed, Bec could clearly hear the ticking behind her, including the occasional whirr of gears that she remembered but hadn't been able to hear. She swallowed and chewed slightly on the inside of her bottom lip, hoping she didn't look as afraid as she felt. When he broke his gaze and looked up over her shoulder, she turned slightly, squeezing her eyes shut as she did so so she wouldn't see the robot, and pressed a comforting kiss to the top of the girl's head. "You're okay," she kept whispering. "We're just going to stay very still, okay?"

She watched as the Doctor's eyes momentarily flicked between the robot and the little girl. "Hold still, let me look?" he said, reading for the girl's head and looking in her eyes from a variety of angles. "You've been scanning her brain!" he accused the intruder. "What? You've crossed two galaxies and thousands of years just to scan a child's brain? What could there be in a little girl's mind worth blowing a hole in the universe?"

"I don't understand," Reinette cried out. She looked at Bec. "It want's me?" She turned to the monster behind her. "You want me?"

The robot ticked and whirred before answering a chillingly familiar, overlapping voice. "Not yet. You are incomplete."

"Incomplete? What's that mean: incomplete?" The Doctor stood and raised his sonic threateningly as he spoke. "You can answer her, you can answer me! What do you mean, incomplete?!"

At the Doctor's provocation, the robot walked around the bed, offering Bec her first glimpse of the monster that wasn't supposed to exist. It raised its arm towards the Doctor and a nasty looking cutting tool flicked out like a Swiss Army Knife attachment.

"Monsieur, be careful," Reinette cried out, her hands clutching Bec's arm.

"Just a nightmare, Reinette," the Doctor stated calmly over Bec's identical whispered reassurances. "Don't worry about it. Everyone has nightmares." He dodged and backed away as the robot slashed at him, an almost maniacal grin creeping across his face. "Even monsters from under the bed have nightmares, don't you, monster." He shot the thing a cocky smile before dodging its attack again, leading it to embed it's blade into the mantel piece. "Bec? Cathryn?" he summoned quickly without looking at the girls as he called.

Bec quickly placed another motherly kiss on the top of Reinette's head, momentarily distracting the girl, before untangling herself and hurrying back to the fireplace with her friend.

"What do monsters have nightmares about?" she asked in confusion as the three visitors crammed together before the fireplace, the Doctor always between his granddaughters and the robot.

"Me!" he announced with a laugh and a manic grin, activating the switch that caused the fireplace to spin once more.

"Doctor!" cried Rose in alarm at his sudden appearance. Cathryn and Bec stumbled away from the clockwork droid while the Doctor never hesitated. He swiftly grabbed a tube from the nearby metal rack and fired its contents over the android as it started to freeze in place. Now the smell of the fluid coinciding with roasted meat hovered in the air and that indeed wasn't pleasant to behold at all. Both girls breathed through their mouths trying to avoid the stench. _It seems to just get worse,_ Cathryn thought in disdain.

"Excellent. Ice gun," Mickey exclaimed with enthusiasm, watching the fight with apparent intrigue.

"Fire extinguisher," the Doctor corrected.

"Where did that thing come from?" Rose was staring at the droid, pondering its sudden appearance.

"Here." The Doctor answered as he took out his sonic screwdriver, preparing to examine the specimen before him.

"So why's it dressed like that?" Mickey asked as he glanced back at the girls. "Where did you three go?" He wondered if the girls weren't telling him something. That there was another reason they chose to visit a spaceship. Cathryn initially asked for a space station until Bec seemed to correct her. He had been too excited at first as the prospect. Now, he was pondering the actual motive. For their supposed desire and idea of a first trip, neither of them seemed to be enjoying themselves.

"Field trip to France, we all had," the Doctor answered quickly. "Some kind of basic camouflage protocol," the Time Lord observed. "Nice needlework, shame about the face." He removed the damaged mask that covered the android's face as his eyes narrowed to see the clockwork underneath while stealing a swift look back at his girls. _'A spaceship filled with clockwork droids.'_ Had been what Cathryn said previously in the kitchen. Both Bec and Cathryn's attempts to excuse the information or justify it now proved too coincidental for it to be a matter of happenstance. _They knew about the droids, about the ship…_ with their developing senses, training them would now become a matter of urgency. No better time than the present and best to begin with a subject of direct relevance. "Bec, Cathryn, any idea of what the first law for time is?" He glanced back at them before turning back to the robot in question.

Bec swallowed, feeling a sensation of dizziness run through her while Cathryn leaned again the metal wall her arms wrapped around her rib cage.

 _Laws for time._ Bec briefly rolled her eyes before glancing back at the Doctor. "Don't wander off?" she asked, knowing full well she got it wrong. Cathryn smirked at her briefly in amusement.

"Oi! That is my rule for companions not a law for time." The Time Lord seemed irritated as Cathryn merely shrugged.

"We've never been to Gallifrey or to the Time Lord Academy. How would we know the laws for time?" Cathryn posed rhetorically. However, she did know what a couple of them were but she was hardly going to give him the satisfaction of answering correctly.

"You can't alter the past," he dictated, giving them both a look. "Creating such an paradox could upset the stability of the Universe."

"Never stopped you before," Cathryn muttered under her breath for which the Doctor looked at her sharply. For her, that law was filled with hypocrisy. What was the Doctor doing if not altering the past? She considered many incidents including Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, Queen Victoria. She closed her eyes briefly, rubbing her forehead to clear the dizzying sensation in her mind. Yes, it was all very well for him to say, 'don't interfere with the past', when that seemed to be a near everyday occurrence for him.

His sharp gaze meant that he heard her and she sighed briefly cursing Time Lord senses that were so much more acute than her own. Nothing seemed to feel private or sacred to her anymore and it was so much more ideal when it had just been a story rather than real life where these dangerous circumstances were merely routine to him.

Bec was more disturbed that the Doctor wasn't admiring the android clockwork but was instead posing questions to them. He almost didn't seem to notice as the robot transported away directly in front of him and he took in the scene with a vague sense of irritation.

"Oh that's a shame," the Doctor muttered. "Was just about to disassemble it, crime that it is buuut…." He glanced around the area. "Short range teleport. Can't have got far." He nodded to himself. "Could still be on board."

"What is it?" Rose asked in curiosity glancing down the corridor of the ship.

"Don't go looking for it," the Doctor ordered her sternly.

 _Right._ Bec thought, looking at the blonde. _I'm sure that works all the time._ But then, this was how his companions would realise the actual source of the stench of roasting meat. So at the moment, she wasn't about to interfere.

Cathryn and Bec were startled from their revelry as the Doctor took both their arms, pulling them from their positions and heading back towards the fireplace. Both stumbled, feeling the sensation of vertigo run through them. The Doctor grimaced, glancing back at his girls in turn. "A bit dizzy?"

"I'm afraid of heights…" Cathryn muttered, gesturing to the window. "Or well, similar sensation." She glanced at Bec who looked a little green and unsteady in her posture. Maybe she had a similar phobia but she never had thought to ask before. Only an act of willpower had gotten Cathryn up on the Eiffel Tower previously, as she would never choose to do so for entertainment value.

Bec shook her head lightly, stopping when it didn't help the dizzying sensation. "It's the smell," she muttered in explanation. "It's just making me feel off."

The Time Lord nodded but knew that their senses were acutely impacted by the time disruption. Dizziness and nausea were common side effects to fractures in time as was his instruction at the Time Lord Academy and part of the sixth sense his girls were developing but he knew it was only going to get worse, therefore his need to fix the damage before it became a dire emergency. His investigation still left many unanswered questions.

He activated the fireplace again and both girls were jolted back into the room where daylight was streaming through the windows. Bec stumbled back near the bed as Cathryn took to glancing out the window. The season had also changed radiating a spring or summer instead of the enchanting winter snowfall she had previously witnessed. Glancing around the room, she noticed the more plush overtones. The mature paintings that decorated the walls, while the bed was larger in a more grandiose style. The intricate work of the quilting with the mirrors in their gilded frames. _So very French._ She thought. It was considerably strange. She knew Reinette had been speaking French as a little girl but Cathryn was hearing it in English although at the same time, she also knew a bit of French. If she concentrated hard enough, she could almost discern the other language behind the TARDIS translation matrix that was inside her head. It was a curious effect.

"Yes, I speak a little French," she murmured to herself trying to hear the sounds of the words as Bec glanced at her with amusement. Admittedly, between the two, Bec had shared her own curiousity for how the translation circuits worked and wanted to test it, which was what inspired Cathryn to perform the slight experiment. "Oui, je parle Francais un peu." She was repeating the two phrases and she could almost detect a resonance as Bec picked up her own variation of the game she, herself had proposed. Although, she had taken Greek, it wasn't difficult to repeat the translated versions of the sentences Cathryn was muttering to herself.

The Doctor cast them an amused look as they sampled the language. Between himself and the TARDIS, they composed the entirety of the translation matrix the girls were starting to sample. Wasn't it just like him to be so technically curious as to how it worked? When their minds were more fully developed, they could potentially start to complete the translation on their own without his assistance.

He strummed a few notes on the harp as he gave a look around the room before calling out to the occupant. "Reinette, just checking you're okay."

A delicate clearing of a particular female's throat caught their attention as the Doctor turned around. The Doctor looked briefly lost for words while Bec and Cathryn exchanged a knowing glance.

"Oh, hello." The Doctor paused, flustered scratching the back of his neck. "Er, I was looking for Reinette." He gazed around finally noticing the change in décor. "This is still her room, isn't it?" He glanced back at his girls who were merely looking at the woman in front of him with a sense of intrigue and he raised his eyebrows. "I've been away, not sure how long."

An older woman's voice drifted upstairs. "Reinette! We're ready to go."

Reinette glanced back through the doorway. "Go to the carriage, mother. I will join you there." She took a few steps closer to examine all the occupants that were now in her room. "It is customary, I think, to have imaginary friends only during one's childhood." She smiled at them. "You are all to be congratulated on your persistence." The warmth of her expression was highlighted when she looked at Bec in memory of the person who offered her comfort that night from the monster that hid under the bed.

"Reinette! Well. Goodness how you've grown." The Doctor was stunned by the passage of time. _How many years has it been?_

"And none of you have appeared to age a single day." She paused to examine them each. "How terribly impolite of you."

"Sorry about that," Cathryn took to murmuring. "Not our fault really." She looked to Bec who was at the moment curious at the appearance of the famous French courtesan.

"Not your fault," Reinette repeated. "How was this accomplished?" she asked Cathryn directly before turning to Bec in discerning appraisal as she brushed a hand against her friend's arm.

"Right, yes, sorry," the Doctor interrupted. "Listen, lovely to catch up, but better be off, eh?" he suggested. "Don't want your mother finding you up here with a few strangers, do we?"

"Strangers?" The courtesan turned to the Doctor. "How could any of you be strangers to me? I've known you all since I was seven years old."

"Yeah, I suppose you have. We came the quick route." Was the Time Lords explanation. That seemed to do little to satisfy her.

"You seem to be flesh and blood, at any rate, but this is absurd. Reason tells me you cannot be real." Reinette simply shook her head as the conversation continued between the Doctor and the courtesan. They barely heard the servant calling out a summons for the woman when both gasped at the sudden embrace.

With Bec, the moment she was hugged, Reinette whispered something in her ear and Cathryn looked at her in curiosity. Then immediately, she started kissing the Doctor passionately, pushing him up against the wall near the fireplace as the two girls simply watched the fairly intimate scene. The exchange seemed to last even longer than it did on the show. Several seconds longer in fact.

"That's very…." Bec whispered to her shifting from one foot to another and averting her gaze.

"Very French," was all Cathryn could think to say, before deciding that a gaze out the window was now her best option.

"Mademoiselle Poisson!" a servant demanded. Reinette gave them a fleeting glance of regret before running out the door as the attendant entered her room, eyes widening in indignance at seeing their presence to whom the Doctor greeted with a renewed giddy excitement.

"Poisson? Reinette Poisson?" the Time Lord asked, glancing at his girls. _Have they known all along?_ he wondered. "No! No, no, no, no, no way." He shook his head. "Reinette Poisson? Later Madame Etoiles? Later still mistress of Louis the Fifteenth, uncrowned Queen of France?" He immediately gripped both Cathryn and Bec's hands pulling them in the direction of the fireplace while he continued to ramble. Bec tried to brush his grasp off as Cathryn merely looked disgruntled but the Doctor paid little attention. "Actress, artist, musician, dancer, courtesan. Fantastic gardener!" the Time Lord exclaimed.

"Who the hell are you all?!" the servant wanted to know.

The old alien seemed to have a renewed sense of vigor as he glanced between his granddaughters and the servant demanding their identity. "I'm the Doctor. These are my granddaughters and I just snogged Madame de Pompadour," he boasted giving a pronounced laugh in triumph before activating the fireplace. "Ha, ha!" Once again, the entire mantle turned spinning them back onto the ship.

But then, it was just to his consternation that his two companions weren't where he left them and he clenched his jaw in frustration, immediately worried. The clockwork droids couldn't be far, which was worrisome. He had yet to know their intentions and his granddaughters knew more than they cared to admit. The Time Lord shook his head, grousing at the seeming insubordination of the decree he established.

"Rose!" he shouted out. "Mickey!" Before inhaling through his nose, releasing his girl's hands and pacing the area. "Every time." He muttered. Glancing back at the girl's he nodded in their direction. "Weeell, c'mon then. Have to find them, don't we?"

Both looked at him slightly askance but followed closely in his direction as the Doctor continued to ramble at the perpetual hardship with having companions not follow his one and only rule. In the interim, he was also keeping a precise calculation of the time needed between injections. Three hours and thirty-two minutes, given the present circumstances and current hormone levels. He could feel each second slipping by as he could determine the girl's current sensation to the cracks in the vortex around them. How they stumbled briefly because of their vertigo or nausea attributed to the damage in reality. Somehow, he would have to explain how all their time senses were working on such a physical level. He briefly mused on Cathryn's medications. Her complaints about migraines that she suffered from for the last year. Did Bec also suffer from headaches? Were they already so acutely able to feel the sensation of paradoxes back in their universe of origin? He did intend to find out and even began to ask a question just to that effect before they came face to face with a white horse complete with bridle and saddle. The Doctor only observed the animal misplaced in time with a look of confusion.

"Awww…" Cathryn couldn't help it when she looked at the beautiful animal right before her. She had been horseback riding a few times and loved it, recalling the moments when she rode on visits along side the beach at Half Moon Bay. She started to stroke his neck. _Maybe…_ She didn't know how long they would have between this journey and the one that lingered in Pete's World. She always loved animals and disregarded the Doctor's dubious claim of talking to horses, which she took with a grain of salt. She just shook her head remembering the discussions she had with Amber about it. The Doctor ate meat. She had seen him consume it herself so how could he eat beef and be comfortable talking to a horse. That didn't make sense and if it was true… _ew…._ She thought. _Just ew…._ She shuddered.

Bec slowly approached the horse, put at ease by Cathryn's comfortable and excited display. She hadn't had much experience with horses, and actually found herself feeling rather nervous before the great beast, but she had always wanted to learn how to ride. She stood next to Cathryn and tentatively mimicked the way the other girt stroked the his neck.

"He's beautiful," Bec murmured in admiration of the animal as a smile touched her lips and Cathryn turned. She knew that the horse was to be used to break through the mirror later but….

"Could we keep him?" she asked, startling the Doctor who turned to look at the two with a mixed expression at the question. He never expected it. _Keep a horse?_

"He's from 18th Century France," he said in response to his granddaughter's request, pondering if this is how it began. One of his daughters insisted on a pet Rovie but for a version of a Gallifreyian mouse, it had the capacity to disappear into the cabling and become so intelligent that it could take over the TARDIS itself. Briefly, he shuddered. _Never again._ He felt the same way about the Gallifreyan cat. But a horse? Weeell, admittedly, he had no disinclination towards horses and with all the difficulties his granddaughters were going through, maybe a pet would help. He pursed his lips in thoughtful determination as Bec continued stroking the creature wincing away slightly when it turned its face towards her slightly, wary to mind his teeth.

"So what if he is?" she asked. "Are animals fixed points in time?"

"How much do you know about fixed points?" Instantly, his attention focused on Bec to the point of discomfort. She wondered if she said the wrong thing. They had discussed fixed points before, hadn't they? Now, she wasn't so sure.

"Just from the library," she offered vaguely. Bec knew he had seen her there plenty of times before. "Just events that need to happen a certain way." Bec pressed her lips together hard, feeling her jaw clench. She was tired again. Dizzy and tired. Her lost medication aside and events here weren't helping the sensation. She knew Cathryn felt little better than she did.

It almost came as a relief to her when the Doctor seemed to let her definition slide into his rambling about the first law of time.

"With being a Time Lord comes the knowledge of every fixed point for the universe." He explained. "You can't alter the past as you know it and fixed points have a longstanding impression on the timeline, if one were to interfere with their natural progression, they could damage reality."

"So, set it stone." Cathryn muttered, unable to stop her mind from drifting to the 'Waters of Mars' episode. She remembered how angry the Doctor became and how much it frightened her the first time she watched it, which became the basis for her story, 'Lost in Time'. Oh, she hoped she wasn't anywhere near him when that episode occurred.

"Weeeell, a bit set in stone. Sometimes you can bend a fixed point but should one ever be truly broken, time would freeze and collapse." He was trying to be precise because he knew he had to be. Fixed points was one of the most fundamental principles taught at the Time Lord Academy. "Reality would die."

"Best to make sure that doesn't happen." A slight accusatory note entered Cathryn's tone and the Doctor frowned. Was he not explaining it correctly? Did they need examples since they were still processing the environment from primarily a very human perspective?

"Pompeii is one example because when it erupted it…" He started only to have his voice trail as Bec just shook her head wearily. She didn't want to have this discussion right now and least of all, the episode regarding Pompeii, which wasn't too far distant.

"We understand what they are." Her voice was grim. "We don't need a reminder." She went back around the horse to stroke his mane. "Are we able to keep the horse?" She asked, thinking of Cathryn's request.

The Doctor suppressed his frustration that they were avoiding such an important discussion, but he reminded himself that they were only very young, not even fifty years old, and they hadn't had the training Time Lords of their age would have received by now. He forced himself to relax and temporarily let the matter drop. He could raise it again when they were older and had been prepared to learn. Even so, their reaction to the topic was striking. I wasn't that they were unfamiliar with a new topic, far from it. Instead, the conversation was raising their hostility towards him. "I suppose the TARDIS, I can add a stable." The Doctor mused, wondering why they were upset. Perhaps it was still the physical impact of the time distortions on their newly developing bodies, taking its toll. He continued to meander down the corridor as the horse followed behind with his girls in pursuit before opening a pair of white wooden doors. The three of them squinted as bright light flooded in.

"So this is where you came from, eh, horsey?" the Doctor asked the white stallion rhetorically, not even expecting an answer.

"Did he say anything?" Bec asked the Doctor in verification. She often speculated that the eleventh Doctor was simply whimsical and pretended that particular animals could talk to him in turn but it would be good to have confirmation.

"Did who say anything?" the Doctor glanced around the corridor puzzled. Who else was his granddaughter referring to? Had Bec heard someone else speak that he couldn't discern or….

Bec merely flushed in embarrassment, exchanging a look of awkwardness before shaking her head. "Never mind." She said quietly, in answer to the Doctor's confusion while both girls followed him outside to the Palace of Versaille Garden, closely hidden behind a stone urn.

They could hear the chatter of the women in the decorative garden as they glanced around the hedge to see Reinette walking along a pathway. "Oh Catherine, you are too wicked." The courtesan chided her friend.

"Oh speaking of wicked, I hear Madame de Chateauroux is ill and close to death," Reinette's friend observed while the Doctor inched closer. Cathryn and Bec remaining carefully in their positions so as to not disturb the events anymore than they had previously. Bec frowned, surprised she could hear the young aristocrats voices so clearly when she often had trouble with her hearing, but she assumed the wind must be blowing the right way, frowning again as she felt a brief gust from behind her.

"It's actually kind of impressive," Cathryn muttered.

"What is?" Bec asked, gazing at the various flowers that surrounded them while Cathryn, amidst the sudden emersion of pollen, struggled not to sneeze. With spring came the present reminder of her hay fever and once again she cursed the loss of her own confiscated medication.

"The King of France. Keeping only one mistress." Cathryn struggled. "Henry VIII was never that devoted so two of his would be Queens simply had their heads cut off for a variety of reasons." Briefly, she grimaced thinking of the memorial they built in Tower Square for that area of execution.

Bec shuddered, giving a nod, thinking Reinette was far safer in her position as a mistress than a would be queen. "Is it true?" she asked. "Was Reinette really friends with the Queen of France?" She was curious and thought since Cathryn was intrigued with history, she might know. It was better than asking the Doctor. Speaking of the Time Lord in question, he was still observing Reinette who was concocting her plan to attend the Yew Tree Ball while peacocks wandered just nearby. It was a little awkward to see his silly display. He appeared to be in the very aspect of imitating a local peeping tom and Bec simply grimaced shaking her head at his behaviour.

"Friends is a strong word," Cathryn told her, briefly rolling her eyes. "The Infanta of Spain didn't mind her and they spoke civilly. Reinette didn't alienate the queen like other mistresses had. The queen said something like, if the King were to have or needed to have a mistress then, she wouldn't mind it to be her." She gestured to the courtesan in front of them who was now heading back towards the palace for the apparent cocktails that were being offered.

"At least they were civil." Bec nodded, thinking it was a good strategic move on behalf of Reinette whom seemed incredibly intelligent for a woman of any age. "They do like their wine, don't they?"

"Oh, but this is France." Cathryn chuckled. "Wine practically originated here along with all the wine laws that we have in the present." She pressed her lips together in thought. "Actually, it wasn't until the last century that they fully fermented wine and it had a stronger alcoholic content. Red wine that they serve in this century leans more to the side of grape juice. Not as much alcohol. Still a fair bit." She raised her eyebrows. "I know you choose not to drink so I'm not going to mislead you."

"But why so much wine?" Bec was curious, knowing that it was a staple but unclear as to the reason.

"It was safer than water with the process they undertook here. Less chance of drinking anything toxic or infectious." The brunette grimaced. "Whatever you do and I'm telling you now, don't drink the water." The girl warned as Bec wrinkled her nose in distaste considering the possibility.

The Doctor, now relatively unseen was able to guide his girls back through the door and down the corridor where they just managed to find Rose and Mickey who were standing in front of the gilded, see through mirror into an exquisitely decorated room.

"Blimey," Mickey said, clearly unimpressed by the man's superior attitude that had just walked into the chamber. "Look at this guy. Who does he think he is?" He rolled his eyes, looking at Rose.

"The King of France," the Doctor said in a cocky tone from behind them as they both turned, noticing their approach.

"Oh, here's trouble." Rose gave them all a tongue in teeth grin. "What have you all been up to?"

"Oh, you know…" The Doctor paused. "This and that. We became the imaginary friends of a future French aristocrat, picked a fight with a clockwork man." He glanced pointedly back at his girls in reference to their earlier discussion in the kitchen. But neither girl intended to offer anything more than their silence as further explanation to their prior insight. He gave a sigh just as he heard the horse neigh behind them.

"Oh, and we now have a horse." He waved his hand to the white mare and his girls in an explanatory gesture while Rose only smiled, shaking her head at this sudden whimsical gesture, while looking at the animal.

"What's a horse doing on a spaceship?" Mickey pondered, trying to conceive all these new developments. "And where you goin' to put him on ours?" He looked at Cathryn and Bec. Adopting a horse. That seemed like an odd request when most women he knew preferred cats or dogs as pets. Horses, from what he recalled, took a lot more work than that of a kitten.

"Mickey, what's pre-Revolutionary France doing on a spaceship?" the Doctor posed. "Get a little perspective." He nodded to his girls while already making the mental configurations in his mind. "We'll keep the horse in the stables of course," he told Mickey as though the answer was so distinctly obvious that the young man must have been completely blind to miss it entirely.

Cathryn grimaced, laying a hand on his arm. "The ship can make things. Add rooms," she said to him quietly, thinking about the block transfer mathematics for which such things were performed. "It's part of the architectural configuration program." Mickey only glanced at her blankly and Cathryn realized that the explanation might be less than telling. "A sort of software program, like a video game but this one designs rooms depending on need for the TARDIS." She suddenly found herself the subject of scrutiny when everyone had fallen silent and Bec stared at her with a gaze of concern.

She took a deep breath, biting her lip briefly as she met the Doctor who was merely looking at her. "I majored in Interactive Media in college." She tried. "Film media and software design. I was curious about software since the TARDIS is kind of a computer." Cathryn explained, feeling her heart pound until Mickey nodded in sudden enthusiasm. "So you were going to make video games?" He asked. "Before you got here? Like on Xbox?"

"Potentially. A lot of video games and animation is done with green screen. Various effects, 3D and other things, so…" Her voice trailed as the conversation seemed to drift safely elsewhere. She had actually never played an Xbox or Nintendo in her life but her major didn't preclude designing work on that scale. Although, she hoped Mickey wouldn't ask her opinion about which system she though was more optimal. She had no idea to hazard a guess.

See these?" The Doctor gestured to the window, his attention briefly drawn away from his girls as he ran over every word they said, especially Cathryn's, in his mind. "They're all over the place. On every deck. Gateways to history. But not just any old history."

Through the window, they watched Reinette entering the room, meeting the King's gaze and dipping him a low curtsey in address to his presence.

"Hers," the Doctor established decisively. "Time windows deliberately arranged along the life of one particular woman. A spaceship from the fifty first century stalking a woman from the eighteenth." He shook his head in puzzlement of the query that was presented before him. "Why?" A question more to himself than to anyone else.

Cathryn gave Bec an apologetic look with a brief shrug. With the disorienting spells of dizziness and headaches, she wasn't thinking clearly, couldn't sort through her mind with precision, which was why she rambled off random facts to Mickey as though they were nothing. Closing her eyes, she gave herself a brief shake. _Hold it together._ She commanded herself fiercely.

Bec pressed her lips together at Cathryn's explanation. She didn't understand the intricate details of the Whoniverse half as well as the other girl, and as interesting as she found the topic, she worried about what the Doctor would think of Cathryn's obvious knowledge. What might he do if he thought they know too much? Would he assume she knew exactly the same trivia as her friend? She glanced over at him. He seemed to be focused entirely on the time window and the woman therein, but Bec knew that behind his seemingly distracted expression he would be registering and scrutinising everything they said.

"Who is she?" Rose asked curiously.

"Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, known to her friends as Reinette. One of the most accomplished women who ever lived," the Doctor explained.

"So has she got plans of being the Queen, then?" Rose asked as they watched the silent exchange between the courtesan and the King.

No, he's already got a Queen," he corrected lightly. "She's got plans of being his mistress."

"Oh, I get it." Rose nodded. "Camilla." The blonde's mind went to that sensational novel of the character who developed quite a name for herself.

Bec winced. She'd always hated that line from the show, finding Rose's humour on this occasion to be distasteful. "Camilla." Bec shrugged. "Kind of a tacky joke." She murmured to Cathryn.

Rose had obviously overheard Bec, turning of the two girls. "What do you mean, tacky?"

Cathryn decided to step in. "I just happened to think England was proud of their monarchy. God save the Queen and all. But paralleling the French royal family to Camilla who is not highly looked upon after the death of Princess Diana….well, it's not really the same at all, is it? Camilla won't ever be Queen Consort because of public opinion and she's not a mistress to Prince Charles but his wife." She turned on Rose. "Do you even know your history? That kings were obliged to take mistresses? That refusing a king could even cost you your life or property for your family especially if you were a woman. One woman refused to become the king's mistress in renaissance England. She lost her head." She took a deep breath. "You forget that a woman's place was never easy especially in a monarchy. They don't get to choose their own spouse. Everything is simply arranged. For Jeanne-Antionnette Poisson, she made a name for herself even though she was born common. Even so, women were just things to be owned and perhaps you should think twice before you ridicule a girl who has no where near the same opportunities as you do."

There was a certain silence as Rose's face flushed in embarrassment while she seemed to flounder a bit for words. "You know your history," she managed.

"It's a hobby," Cathryn replied.

 _Maybe more than a hobby,_ the Doctor thought, thinking through what Cathryn just said. "I think this is the night they met. The night of the Yew Tree ball." The Doctor nodded towards the mirror. "In no time flat, she'll get herself established as his official mistress, with her own rooms at the palace. Even her own title. Madame de Pompadour."

They watched the King and his servants leave as Reinette headed to the mirrors to double check her reflection. It was then that Cathryn shared a sideways glance with Bec to make sure her friend was ready to go when she was. Although, this particular visit would be decisively one of the most intimate to be witnessed. Cathryn pondered whether they should turn away or drift into another room when he was performing the telepathy. _It looks so uncomfortable to me._ While Cathryn and Bec had experienced surface commands, they hadn't really experienced the knowing sensation of the Doctor entering their minds. The time when the Doctor forced his way into their heads in the Louvre nearly didn't count. It was hazy and Cathryn remembered the pain but little else of the venture.

Bec, on the other hand, had her eyes focused on the figure standing unobtrusively in the far corner of the room. She could just make out the shattered clock face, and she assumed this was merely because she already knew the clock was broken. She glanced back at Reinette who had stepped up to the mirror, feeling almost creepy standing around in a group watching the oblivious woman.

"So, why is the ship following her?" Rose asked, looking towards the Doctor.

"I dunno. Some sort of fault in the programming, maybe," he speculated.

Suddenly, Reinette spun on the spot, turning towards the robot Bec had been watching. Her voice didn't carry through the mirror, but Bec remembered her words, and the clockwork droid turned to face her. Immediately the Doctor reacted, snatching the fire extinguisher off Mickey and pushing through the revolving mirror. He trusted his girls to follow him. It had been their initial insistence that he not leave them behind, and they had been very deliberate about staying by his side, so now he had little doubt that they would follow him safely into France once more.

"Hello, Reinette. Hasn't time flown?" he commented cheerfully as he quickly stepped towards the robot.

The French woman called out, "Fireplace man," in surprise, while the Doctor literally froze the machine in its tracks, before tossing the ice gun back to Mickey.

Bec stepped up next to Reinette as she watched the familiar scene from an unfamiliar angle, and was surprised when Reinette took her hand as she watched the events before her.

Cathryn couldn't help but smile at the fact that Bec had seemed to make a new friend in the space of so short of time. Meanwhile, Mickey was focused with the clockwork droid.

"What's it doing?" He was examining it in consternation.

"Switching back on," the Doctor informed them. "Melting the ice."

"And then what?"

"Then it kills everyone in this room," the Doctor commented casually. He jerked back slightly, a sharp and almost manic look in his eye as he evaded the robot's grasping hand. "Focuses the mind, doesn't it?" He challenged, "Who are you? Identify yourself!" The clockwork droid remained silent and the Doctor turned to Reinette. "Order it to answer me."

"Why should it listen to me?"

"I know," Cathryn muttered. "No real logic to it. It just does so you're our best chance at this."

"It did when you were a child," the Doctor answered, looking askance at Cathryn as he slowly walked around the courtesan. "Let's see if you still got it."

Bec squeezed Reinette's hand as Cathryn tried for a reassuring tone. "It's okay. It will take orders from you. Then you can go back to the dance. Speaking of dancing, why is the king goes to dress as topiary?"

"Cathryn," the Doctor said warningly to her idle questions and the girl only shrugged diffidently.

"Answer his questions," Reinette stated. "Answer any and all questions put to you." It was an order.

There was a brief pause as the droid lowered its hand. The Doctor took a slow lanky step forward, but as he went to question the machine, Cathryn's voice cut through the room first.

"Why did you cut apart the crew and use their spare organs for parts?" Cathryn demanded. The room fell quiet, multiple sets of wide, shocked eyes shooting to the woman who had demanded such an answer, while a couple among them started to appear ill at the inquest.

 **Authors' note:**

 **And here's the next chapter. :-)**

 **As always, thank you Almadynis Rayne, Fan Fictional Authoress and LovelyAmberLight for your help and encouragement, and to everyone else for your kind words and support.**

 **And if you'd like to leave a review, we'd love to hear from you! :-)**

 _ **azaadin & emptyvoices**_


	7. Masquerade

**Chapter 7: Masquerade**

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"Cathryn," Bec growled softly, but it was too late to take her words back.

"The crew..." Mickey started to ask as he remembered all he and Rose had seen on the ship.

"We did not have the parts," the droid responded in a clipped, emotionless tone, clicking every time with whatever it used as a voice box, was switched on and off.

"No, we've got that bit," Cathryn pressed further. "But what made you think it was appropriate to use the crew as parts to fix the ship?"

"The parts were available," the robot answered blankly.

"No they weren't. They were in use!" Cathryn shouted. "How can the ship fly now without a crew?"

"Cathryn," the Doctor said, stepping next to his granddaughter, trying to calm her. Had they always known what they were walking into on that ship? He thought about the girls' strong, almost violent reaction to the smell of cooking meat. _'It'll be a picnic, but who for?'_ he had overheard Bec comment back on the TARDIS. His jaw tightened. No wonder they were so disgusted and afraid. The curse of knowing what was to come.

"Reinette," Bec said softly to the woman next to her, hoping that they could defeat the robots with that one command. "Tell it that it can't use people for parts. Tell it it's not allowed to."

The Doctor glanced back at them at Bec's soft words.

Reinette looked at her nervously, then faced down the droid with all the authority of a French aristocrat. "I forbid you from using people as parts for your own purposes," she stated commandingly.

"That statement is overridden by directive 6A," the droid corrected her.

"And what is directive 6A?" the Doctor asked condescendingly.

"That all available compatible parts are to be used for the repair and maintenance of the vessel."

"I told you, those parts weren't available!" Cathryn told it.

"Its programming doesn't specify that the crew weren't available," the Doctor muttered, resting his hand comfortingly of Cathryn's arm. "Good try though. But what are you doing here?" he continued, raising his voice as he addressed the robot. "You've opened up time windows. That takes colossal energy. Why come here? You could have gone to your repair yard. Instead you come to eighteenth century France? Why?"

"One more part is required." Its head twisted to one side, staring directly at Reinette.

The Doctor followed its line of sight before looking back at the robot. "Then why haven't you taken it?" he asked softly.

"She is incomplete."

"What, so, that's the plan, then." He gave an exaggerated frown as he shook his head. "Just keep opening up more and more time windows, scanning her brain, checking to see if she's done yet."

"Why her?" Rose interrupted." You've got all of history to choose from. Why specifically her?"

The Doctor nodded approvingly at the question. Rose always knew what to ask to get to the heart of the matter. He frowned as he heard Bec whispering to Reinette again.

"Don't say anything. Just don't say anything," she instructed her urgently.

So far, Reinette listened but the clockwork droid received a question from Rose and it was prompted to answer. "We are the same."

Reinette looked aghast at Bec before turning to the clockwork droid, holding herself in regal opposition. "We are not the same. We are in no sense the same."

"Reinette…." Bec pleaded. "Don't say anything. We need it to stop. Maybe we can-"

"By speaking to one who plans to murder me as it has murdered others?" Reinette was every inch French nobility.

"Negotiations are made with more despicable creatures. What about the seven-year war, which pitted the Prussians, Austrians and French against-" Cathryn started.

"Cathryn," the Doctor interrupted running a discreet scan and grimacing. The events of the space ship had accelerated events and it seemed his granddaughters was nearing time for another dosage. But he had to exert caution in front of the courtesan.

"Reinette," he started. "I'm sorry. They're not themselves and-"

"Hey!" Cathryn interrupted him, indignantly. "I'm perfectly myself. Anyone would be upset that these _things_ "- She pointed at the robot -"are cutting people apart and using their organs for a machine! So, yes, I'm furious!"

"And rightly so," Reinette said in determination before glaring at the clockwork droid. If it refused to stop massacring people, at least she wouldn't have to see him. "Get out of here!" she demanded. "Get out of here this instant!"

Both Bec and the Doctor cried out, 'Reinette, no!"

But it was too late. The droid teleported away.

"It's back on the ship," the Doctor determined decidedly. "Rose, take Mickey and Arthur. Follow it. Don't approach it, just watch what it does."

"I'm going too!" Cathryn couldn't even think straight. Her mind swirling so much that it was hard to put thoughts together. "They think they can just butcher people to keep a ship running. Can do whatever they like. If I freeze them, take their heads off-" The Doctor managed to catch her, pulling her back against him while Rose and Mickey quickly departed before starting to release her.

"I need you and Bec to stay here with me." He was concerned. The picnic he initially had planned had been a disaster and he believed the timing between dosages had accelerated. Cathryn was the less frequent eater of the two. He watched his two companions leave and somewhat relaxed his grip as he removed one of the syringes he put aside for emergencies. Cathryn in a brief tug pulled away from him, catching sight of the needle immediately fled using Reinette as a barrier between herself and the Doctor.

"No," Cathryn started. "Not now. I'm not tired….don't need a nap."

"There is no sedation in this dose," he assured her. While sleep was necessary, prudence seemed to demand that in events like this, it would have to wait until they were safely back on the TARDIS.

"Bec and I don't want it!" she shrieked.

"No. It's like you just make up times to catch us by surprise," Bec accused.

"Fireplace man, I don't understand." Reinette suddenly took both girls hands reassuringly. "What do you intend to give them." The device he wielded was so foreign to her but so was everything else about him. She looked between the two girls who appeared so threatened and the visitor who had helped in her childhood.

"Reinette, you're going to have to trust me," the Doctor said reassuringly. "They're sick. They need this in order to survive." He paused. "They are all that remains of my family. I do not wish their death. Do you?"

Reinette closed her eyes, thinking of her own beloved daughter, Alexandrine who was just a year old before looking at each girl she deeply treasured as her friends through the long years from one visit to the next and finally nodded. "No. Certainly not," she managed to whisper.

"Why," Bec demanded, her voice low.

The Doctor slowly approached Cathryn as he answered. "The twisting of space time, the paradoxes, are putting a greater strain on your developing senses. You're using up more resources to keep your minds stable and your bodies in equilibrium. This will just help you think more clearly." He addressed the last part of his statement to Cathryn.

"I don't want it," she pleaded.

"Cathryn," Bec began hesitantly. She didn't know what to do, to say. She didn't want to aid him in his abuse, to tell her friend to give in when she knew that she herself wouldn't want to either, but they just needed to play along a little longer, to seem like he could trust them. It wouldn't be long before they would have the opportunity to escape on Pete's World, but until then...

But how could she remind her without him hearing their plan? And how could she, in good conscience, encourage Cathryn to just give in to his controlling whims?

She bit the inside of her bottom lip before speaking up softly again. "I'll go first," she offered nervously.

His brows furrowed slightly in surprise at Bec's offer. If anything, he expected that he was going to have even more difficulty with her than Cathryn. But maybe, maybe she was beginning to believe him, to believe that he was trying to help, that he was only working in their best interests.

He pulled out his screwdriver again and scanned Bec, shaking his head gently at her when he read the results. "You had something to eat this morning?"

Bec played with her lip nervously with her fingertips. "Just this muesli bar thing," she admitted nervously. She assumed that she would be allowed to eat it. It had been left on the table in the room she stayed in after all, but maybe she should have just left it alone. She berated herself internally. It hadn't been there the day before, so she'd assumed that it had either been left for her or was something she was allowed to eat, but what if it had been an accident? What if it was some weird alien food that was going to make her sick? She should have known better than to just eat something lying around like that.

The Doctor nodded, keeping the pleased expression off his face that Bec had eaten the nutrient bar he'd left for her. He'd specially formulated it to provide many of the calories, vitamins and minerals his girls needed to help their development. However, it was clear that Cathryn hadn't eaten the bar he'd left for her. "You won't need an injection for another two hours and twenty-three minutes given the current additional stress to your system. Cathryn hasn't eaten, so her body is overdue for an injection."

Bec couldn't help but feel relieved the she didn't have to have a needle yet, but also cross at the Doctor's jab about Cathryn's eating habits. Even she was concerned for the other girl, but she wasn't about to force her or antagonise her into eating more. That was more likely to have the opposite effect. But if eating more meant he would give them less injections, perhaps that was something they could use in the lead up to their escape plan on Pete's World.

"Cathryn?" the Doctor asked softly, holding out his hand to his granddaughter, hoping she would see reason as Bec was starting to.

"No," she said in refusal, scarcely remembering what she was not agreeing to. Vaguely she recalled the energy bar that appeared in her room right after she had taken her shower but turned away from it in disgust, never liking the taste of any of the meal bars she tried in the gym as well as fearing the unknown ingredients, most prominent in her mind being soy. "No, no, no." Cathryn shook her head, feeling dizzy at the gesture. "You don't know, do you?" she managed. "You give things without knowing for sure. Break the first rule of time but you don't really know. Take all these risks. Hypocrite," she accused.

The Doctor only looked alarmed. _Break the first rule of time?_ His girls claimed to be unaware of the intricacies of the law. He attempted to reach for Cathryn's wrist but her reflexes were already getting faster despite her beleaguered state. Reinette looked at her with concern and then back to Bec. "Is this ailment infectious?"

Bec cringed at the question. It was the eighteenth century where the bubonic plague, tuberculosis and typhus were known killers. In fact, Reinette would later be a victim at only age 43. But she quickly shook her head in response. "It's not a disease," she muttered. _It's just him with those needles, changing us into something we're not._ Bec hoped the changes were only minute, and would wear off once the injections stopped. "You can't catch it."

"You can't believe him," Cathryn called out as she looked for the door, hearing music coming just down the hallway. It was so very lovely. Maybe she could…. _No._ She told herself. He was still advancing on her and the needle had her worried for many reasons. "You can't," she insisted, her mind racing from one thought to the next. "I could get sick. I warned doctors before and they didn't listen. I wrote it all down and nobody paid attention. You didn't know and…" Her voice started to trail in her muddled confusion.

"What don't I know?" the Doctor asked.

"I'm allergic to soy," she said finally. At the moment, she couldn't remember what she told him, whether allergies posed a concern in these injections. With flu vaccinations, one had to be concerned if you were allergic to eggs. _I'm not allergic to eggs._ No, she wasn't. But there were so many things she was otherwise worried about. Soy just was easy to remember. "Don't know how hard it is when you're allergic to soy."

"I do not understand," Reinette said to Bec. "What is this soy?" She paused. "Is it poisonous?"

"No. It's a type of food." Bec could only explain. She didn't know precisely when France was introduced to the soybean. "It's mostly from Asia." At least she understood more or less the answer of why Cathryn's eating habits were so particular even though she knew to some extent about her allergies. However, having to contend with various food groups you couldn't consume would be likely to make anyone nervous. Still, her friend was erratic and confused in her behavior and she needed to resolve Cathryn's fears. "Doctor," she disliked having to do this, rectifying the Doctor's present concerns would ease their circumstances, when they entered the parallel universe. They surely didn't need another hindrance. "The syringe. It's alright for her, isn't it?"

At that moment, he glanced at Bec and then at the very needle he was holding in his hand, before gazing at his disoriented granddaughter. "There is nothing you are allergic to in this injection," he told her solemnly. "You have my word."

It was in that moment during which Cathryn hesitated that he suddenly took hold of her wrist. Otherwise distracted, she wasn't able to dodge him this time but she only let out a cry betraying her futility when he slid the needle into her vein. A tear slid down her cheek, frozen in her position, turning her head away while he removed the syringe, releasing her arm. She stalked away from him, her frown deepening even as her thoughts proceeded to settle, meeting her friend's concerned gaze. "I'm just tired of this," she muttered to Bec. Time seemed to be actively working against them and they were merely one episode away from any attempt at freedom.

Bec swallowed understanding Cathryn's proclamation far too well, shaking her head feeling her own sense of despondency start to well up inside her, only to sense Reinette squeeze her hand. "How difficult it must be for you both to endure. I find myself fortunate to have the company of such persistent imaginary friends as all of you." It was the one steady offer of reassurance as the Doctor finally turned away from Cathryn to examine the rest of the party, namely Reinette.

As soon as the Doctor stepped away, Bec released Reinette's hand and went to Cathryn's side. She felt guilty for her own inaction, for not stopping him, but what could she have done? Not to mention she didn't want to jeopardise their escape. She hated what he was doing to herself and her friend, but their first priority had to be to escape, or they would never be free of him. She reached out and tentatively rubbed Cathryn's upper arm, debating whether or not she should give her devastated friend a hug after failing to assist her in her time of need.

"I want both of you to stay here. Don't leave the room. Don't go anywhere," the Doctor ordered, pointing his finger for emphasis, before giving his full attention to the courtesan. "Reinette, I'm sorry. I need you to trust me. I need to know what those robots want from you, and there's only one way I can do that."

Bec glanced back in time to see the Doctor place his hands on the woman's temples and close his eyes, to see Reinette gasp at the feeling of another presense in her mind. She turned away again, scowling. Once again he gave no choices. He didn't explain to the girl what he intended, he merely did what he thought best regardless of the impact his actions had on those around him. "You j***," she muttered under her breath, hoping he could hear her.

"Fireplace man, you are inside my mind," she heard Reinette gasp.

"Oh dear, Reinette," the Time Lord bemoaned. "You've had some cowboys in here."

"Come on," Bec invited Cathryn softly, pulling her gently away from the pair. They wandered together down to the window behind the curtain, where the repair droid had been hiding, finding themselves looking out over a courtyard full of people dressed in their royal best. _It's a masquerade_ , Bec thought to herself, seeing the elaborate masks that adorned the crowd.

"I'm sorry," Cathryn muttered, frustrated that the medication he forced on them had gotten to her again, frustrated that it caused her to lose control the way it did.

"It's not your fault," Bec assured her. "I'm sorry I didn't help, but..." Her voice trailed off. Even with the Doctor distracted with the courtesan on the other side of the room, she couldn't risk mentioning their plans anywhere near him.

She shook her head at herself as their situation hit her. She was standing in a palace in France overlooking an eighteenth century ball while two fictional characters acted out a scene she knew well while standing next to a woman she wrote fanfiction with. Suddenly everything seemed so surreal, to the point where Bec felt like she was almost disconnected from herself. To compensate, she hugged herself tightly, trying to hold back a wave of giddiness that threatened to overwhelm her.

She looked down at her hand, studying the intricate pattern of her finger and hand- prints. She was sure that everything was real. From what little she knew of dreams and delusions, a person would create a mental image, a feeling about what something was, but that the image would lack detail if studied closely. You look at a person, and know who they are, simply because that was who they were, but if you become aware enough of your dream to look at the details, they would literally be fuzzy and indistinct. There was nothing indistinct about the pattern of her fingerprints, so she held herself tightly again, closing her eyes and trying to find something to hold onto, to keep her sane. Somewhere at the back of the turmoil of her mind she heard a wordless whisper, steadfast and offering her comfort, but she rejected it. Some instinct warned her away from it, like it was a siren voice intent on snaring her. _Please help me!_ She desperately prayed instead.

"Bec? Are you okay?" Cathryn was asking.

She thought about lying, deflecting, brushing the question aside, but that was what he would do. "I just want to go home," she admitted softly, the memory of holding her children breaking through her internal defences for a moment.

She roughly forced the memory aside, focusing instead on the conversation behind her.

"Such a lonely little boy," Reinette was saying. "Lonely then and lonelier now. Even your very family rejects you. How can you bear it?"

"We've changed it again," Bec groaned softly.

Cathryn squeezed her hand. "I know but it's not your fault. We do the best we can, right? For the rest, we leave it up to God."

"Why would God send us here?" The blonde could only whisper. She considered herself fervent in her faith but nonetheless, she was human. She trusted implicitly that God was in control, but being trapped in sci-fi just felt too impossible and ridiculous. This was a trial of a most difficult nature and she had to wonder if she was therefore being tested or whether it was just a consequence of living in a fallen world. _Or worlds._

"I don't know," Cathryn admitted. "I believe things happen because of free will. That's our gift from God. It's also our burden because of the acts of others can cause our own suffering. But… free will, that's why forgiveness is so important. How can God forgive us, if we don't start…" Her voice trailed as she stared at the Doctor briefly. She knew what she was about to say, that the two of them needed to see the necessity of forgiving the Doctor despite everything he had done to them. Pressing her lips together, Cathryn turned away to study the ornate masquerade through the window. The ladies in their beautiful dresses in various shades of reds and Burgundies since it was a still on the cusp of winter. The marvelous buffets with the delicacy of sugar being put as a centerpiece carved into a glittering decoration to invite those to sample the treats each table held.

"How did you do that?" The Doctor seemed astounded by Reinette's apparent intuitiveness and the use of telepathy to see inside the Doctor's own mind.

Cathryn chuckled and Bec looked at her. "Oh, she caught him off guard. Got into his head. Hope it was uncomfortable. At least initially." She could only think about the incidents when the Doctor had used telepathy against her as a show of force.

"A door once opened, can be stepped through in either direction," Reinette said calmly. She did not appear distressed by the telepathic intrusion but exuded warmth while welcoming his mind. "Oh, Doctor. His embittered family." She looked at the two girls only discretely observing. "You must all join us for the masque." She nodded, her gaze warm. "And you, my lonely Doctor, will have my first dance."

"Join for the masque…." Bec started in disbelief, glancing down at her clothing. It was only a small matter. She hardly knew the etiquette for the time. How could she…?

"I can't…." the Doctor said. "We can't…"

"You will," Reinette told him. "I reserve the first dance with you once I have these two young ladies prepared."

"But this is the first night you dance with the King," he proclaimed in insistence.

"Then, I will make him jealous." Reinette's voice was a teasing one as she approached Bec and Laura taking both girls gently by the arms. "You will fail to recognize them once my servants and I are finished with them." She paused. "Do not be afraid. We will not lose sight of the family of your house."

"I can't." If it was just him, weeell….but his girls too? Would they try to use this moment as an opportunity to escape or…

For the first time since the injection was forced on her again, Cathryn spoke to him, responding to the distrustful glare he sent their way. "You actually think we would want to escape into eighteenth century France." She rubbed her arms as she glanced out the window, thinking of the precariousness of the environment. "Oh come on. That's mad. We wouldn't survive and you know it." Besides, if Cathryn had to admit it to herself, to be able to dance in a masque in the palace of Versaille was indeed a once in a lifetime opportunity. Well, no one if their current lifetime should be able to partake in what they were about to engage in. The dresses alone were stunning to their own degree and she knew a few of the court dances that did take place from the time period. At least the Victorian waltz, which she had already watched on display here in the main ballroom. If they had the right male to lead the dance, the female would simply need to follow in step. The only difficulty was contending in when he was to bow in asking for the dance and she was to curtsey.

The Doctor seemed partially mollified as Reinette gained confidence. "You see, what better occasion to help make familial amends than with a dance?" She paused. "The Doctor. Doctor who?" she asked rhetorically. "It's more than just a secret, isn't it?"

"What did you see?" The Time Lord was completely transfixed on Reinette.

"Best to save that for later," she said coyly. "First I will see to your family being prepared and then you Doctor will find that every little boy should learn how to dance."

It was to a mixed degree of excitement and nervousness that Reinette led Cathryn and Bec to her changing room where amongst the beauty of the apparel, Bec was certain to encounter an another uncomfortable device forced upon her to properly fit the wondrous dress she was about to wear. The dreaded corset.

After which, Bec and Cathryn were lead out into the grand ballroom by Maria, the woman who had helped them dress. Bec felt self-conscious in the grand gown she was wearing. It was even more ornate than her wedding dress had been, and far more restrictive. Her many-layered dress was a peachy-gold embellished with beads, embroidery and ruffles. It wasn't a colour she'd normally have been drawn to, but she had been assured that this was the perfect dress for her. Like Cathryn, her hair had been teased and pulled up into an elaborate hairstyle, that she hadn't yet seen, and it was all she could do to not scratch at her scalp where her hair was being pulled painfully taut. The most curious part of her ensemble was the decorative white and gold mask she'd been provided, which covered her from her nose to her hairline. She'd expected that it would feel like the most foreign part of her outfit, next to her corset, but in fact, she felt almost relieved at the feeling of being able to hide herself away from view, as though her immense naivety of the culture they found themselves in was less of an obstacle if no one knew who she was. She knew the feeling was ridiculous though, because no one knew her anyway.

"Now what?" she murmured nervously to her friend. Cathryn had been giving her a crash course in what to expect and how to behave at an eighteenth century French ball as they had dressed, but Bec felt like she could barely remember a word she had said. The other girl was so obviously excited to be able to join the ball, while Bec almost wished that she'd been able to just wait near the mirror that would take them back to the ship.

"Come on, it will be fun," Cathryn encouraged as she had been doing for the last hour, but Bec just shook her head.

"No, it's right. I'm happy to watch, but I'd rather sit out."

Cathryn sighed beside her, and Bec hoped her trepidation and reticence weren't annoying the other woman too much. She warned herself to stop being such a bother so her enthusiastic friend could enjoy herself.

"How about we just watch a dance," Cathryn suggested. "See the steps. It might be fun to have a go."

Bec nodded as she silently disagreed. She couldn't quite imagine how waltzing with total strangers could be fun. She glanced at the people around them, smiling, chatting and dancing with one another. She enjoyed watching other people having fun, but she still had no inclination to join in.

However, she grinned at the busy room. "You know," she murmured. "We might even be able to avoid the Doctor for the night here. He wouldn't recognise us dressed up and in a crowd like this." But her words trailed off as she realised how silly the idea was. They could dress as Topiary, as Cathryn has told her the King and some men would had, but if that irritatingly superior Time Lord could smell them as he claimed, then there wouldn't be anywhere he couldn't find them at the Ball, and Bec wasn't about to wander off and get herself lost in the eighteenth century.

Even though Bec hadn't said anything, Cathryn was sure her desire to evade the Doctor was due to his indirect promise to give her another injection soon. She had already spotted the Time Lord in question on the other side of the room, dancing with a woman in a blue dress with peacock feathers in her hair. She wasn't entirely surprised to see the Doctor, this regeneration especially, dancing his way through the guests at the ball. She wondered how many dances he'd taken part in during the time it had taken her and Bec to get dressed.

As the next song ended, the Doctor's eyes performed another quick sweep of the room, catching sight of his granddaughters at last. He thanked his partner and made a beeline for them, studying them as he approached. Cathryn almost seemed to glow as she surveyed the dance and people around her, whereas Bec was shying away even as a small smile graced her lips. When they spotted his approach, though, their faces fell and hardened. He kept his expression as a mask, though he wasn't wearing one, hiding his hurt at their response behind a jubilant grin.

Before he reached them, though, another nearer man stepped up to them. He quickly assessed the stranger who bowed to Cathryn, delighted by Cathryn's response after the man passed his scrutiny. She grinned widely and graciously accepted the invitation to dance, mimicking the curtsy of the women around her. He was pleased to see how well she was adjusting to traveling, to seeing wonders that so few in the universe would. Hopefully, given time she would come to accept her new life with him. Hopefully they both would.

He narrowed in on Bec, who was looking uncomfortable left on her own and almost reluctant, as though she would have preferred to have been elsewhere. He spotted another guest close by, heading to his lone granddaughter, and he quickened his pace to ensure he reached her first.

"My Lady?" he asked, bowing slightly as was the custom in a French Ball.

Bec recognised what the Doctor was asking, as he mirrored the gesture of many men who were moving about the room between songs. She didn't mind watching the dance, but joining in seemed a step too far, especially when being asked by the man she wanted to avoid above all others. Although, paradoxically, she felt better that he had been the one to ask rather than a stranger. "Ahh, I can't dance," she muttered, not meeting his eyes, glad to have an honest readymade excuse, hoping he would let her simply sit out.

"Then it's a good think I asked first," the Doctor said pointedly, holding out his hand to her.

"Shouldn't we be getting back to Rose and Mickey?" she tried again. She knew the Doctor stayed long enough to share a dance with Reinette, but she had been worrying what would happen if they stayed too long. But how could she ask after Mickey and Rose without putting them both under greater scrutiny?

"Time is flowing differently on either side of the temporal connection. We could spend hours here with only a few minutes passing there, which is why so many years passed between when we saw Reinette as a child, and when we went back," he explained. "So long as we return using the same gateway we passed through initially – that mirror – it will be like we'd barely been gone at all. You don't need to worry. We have plenty of time to get back to the ship."

She nervously glanced around the room at all the couples pairing up and heading towards the floor. She found Cathryn who was already poised to dance. After another moment of reluctant deliberation, Bec tentatively took the Doctor's hand, forgetting to curtsy as her friend had done, and he drew her a few steps closer.

The Doctor nodded, disguising his wince as he touched her. Physical touch strengthened his familial connection with her, and he could sense her fluttering emotions and young telepathic presence with ease. Not only could he feel an underlying anxiety from her, which seemed to him to have a broad focus, but he could clearly sense how she felt about him in that moment. The feeling of her trapped despair when he'd taken her hand had been so strong he'd nearly let her go again, but instead, he swallowed back his own dismay and gently led his granddaughter out amongst the other dancers, gently reaching out to her with his own comforting emotions.

He turned to face her, changing his grip on her hand and placing his other hand at the waist. She was slightly slower in assuming the correct position for the dance, and he knew this was as much due to her reticence of dancing with him as to her naivety of dancing. However, she was able to follow the example of the dancers around her and waited with him for the music to start.

"You haven't done much dancing?" he asked softly.

Bec shrugged as her eyes wandered around the room. He felt entirely too close, yet he seemed oblivious to the fact that she was uncomfortable dancing with the man who had attacked and imprisoned herself and her friend. "We had dances and discos at school, but they were never really my thing. I've never really been one for parties." She shrugged again to make out that it was no big deal.

"Why not?" the Time Lord pressed curiously, aware of her shifting emotions and surprisingly focused concentration despite her impassive expression. He felt her stab of anxiety even as she ruefully smiled and shook her head.

"My hearing isn't so good," she answered off handedly. "When there's too much noise, I wouldn't hear you at all. There's nothing wrong with my ears, I've had my hearing checked. It's apparently the way I process sounds, or don't, or something." She shrugged again, dismissively, but the Doctor could still feel her worry. He lightly sent her calming emotions as music swelled around them, starting softly and quickly building to a crescendo to herald the beginning of the dance. At the right movement of the tune, he began leading the dance, skillfully guiding his granddaughter through the simple steps.

Bec nervously watched the other couples happily spinning around them, and she tried to tune out her own dance, letting her mind focus on other things, much the same way as she did when doing repetitive tasks such as hanging up the washing.

After a little while, she began to relax into a rhythm as the Doctor guided her steps, listening to the soaring of the strings as the music filled the room. She had always enjoyed orchestral soundtracks, her favourite being her CD's for the original Star Wars movies. She used to lie, listening to the music for hours, letting herself feel elation as the music soared, trepidation as it rumbled eerily, anxiety and fear as the darker tones and motifs played, and a diffused joy and peace when the music became soothing and ethereal. She let herself get lost in the sound of the strings which accompanied the dance, trying to, for a moment, forget the harsh reality around her.

The Doctor genuinely grinned to sense her beginning to relax and enjoy herself, although her anxiety never completely dissipated. He found it curious, though, the way her emotions seemed to shift with the music, as though she was dancing with her soul even as she was reluctant to dance with her body, but as soon as the closing motif began he felt her guard going back up as she recognised the end of the song.

"You like music," he commented softly as the final strains of music were played. Immediately he felt both her anxiety and embarrassment jump.

"Ahh, Sorry?" Bec began nervously. She'd heard him ask something, but couldn't hear him over the noise of the ball. Her mind flung back to that moment in high school when her crush repeated the same sentence to her three times before she fled, humiliated that she simply couldn't hear him from two feet away.

The Doctor frowned, remembering what she'd said earlier. He repeated his words and very lightly amplified them telepathically.

"Oh, yeah," Bec agreed, feeling utterly relieved to understand him the second time around, now the music had stopped, so she didn't have to make a fool of herself by endlessly asking him to repeat himself. "My family is musical. I sort of just grew up with it. My Mum was the music director at church for, like, fifteen years when I was growing up. She's one of those people who can just about pick up anything and play it."

He remembered the instrument he had seen in her room. "And you play guitar," he followed up as he began leading her back to the side of the hall. He kept his hand over hers as her hand rested in the crook of his elbow. In time he knew he would be able to sense her and her cousin's emotions without effort, but for now, as the bond continued to develop, it was far easier to allow physical touch to enhance what they would later instinctively sense to keep the level of insight he was enjoying at that moment.

"A little bit," she admitted. "But only a handful of chords. I mostly play songs from my kids, or at preschool or playgroup or Sunday school. You only need three or four chords and you can play practically any nursery rhyme." She shrugged. "I've been trying to learn more, but..." Her voice drifted off. _But I haven't had time_ , she completed in her head. If he had his way, she would likely have plenty of time to teach herself guitar.

The Doctor sensed her shifting moods, and wondered what impact her fluctuating emotional state, particularly her apprehension, was having on her system. He calculated her medication. She should have been due for her next injection in another 44 minutes, but, taking into account her anxiety, he decided that it would be prudent to give her the next dose early. He pulled out his screwdriver and quickly scanned her. Her head shot around as she heard and recognised the sound. The results showed him that his calculations had been corrected. With the extra mental strain of her anxiety, the need for her next dose had been accelerated. This was likely to be unpleasant.

He quickly located Cathryn out of the corner of his eye, curtsying again in acceptance another guest's invitation, one dressed comically as topiary.

"How about we go pop outside?" he suggested, his head twitching to one side to point to the door on the word 'pop'. "They have a buffet for all the guests set up in the garden."

Bec jerked her hand away and stepped back, glaring in response to his lying smile. It seemed entirely too coincidental to her that he would scan her and then happen to suggest they walk away from the crowded hall. The room full of strangers suddenly felt safe knowing the Doctor was trying to secrete her away to drug her again.

"No," she denied venomously. "I don't want another needle."

"Bec," he began, trying to be patient but feeling exasperated.

"Rebecca," she corrected spitefully.

"I know you don't believe me, but you need the injection. Besides, I know you're not entirely comfortable in here. If you're outside, no one will ask you to dance. Weeell, it's a lot less likely anyway."

Bec stood before him, clenching and unclenching her fists as she weighed her options. She could resist him, put up a struggle, but she didn't want to be the centre of a scene. Besides he would win anyway. _The next episode is Pete's world_ , she reminded herself. _Surely that's tomorrow or the next day. Just one more day and we'll be free._

The Doctor watched her as she was obviously thinking through her situation, lamenting their loss of connection now she'd pulled away. He hated that they resisted his efforts to keep them safe and alive. He hated that they didn't trust him, that they feared him, and he hoped that in time he would be able to set things right. He held out his arm to her as the music from the next song began to swell around them. It pained him to see defeat in her eyes. Sometimes winning was no fun at all.

Bec slowly rested her hand back in the nook of his arm. He smiled at her warmly and gently patted her hand with his free one, but she flinched at his touch. She knew it was all in her head, but his hand felt almost greasy and intrusive now, when moments before she had almost felt calmer in his company. Now she didn't want that intimacy. She didn't want him thinking they were family or even friends. She spitefully wanted him to remember what she was: a prisoner. She pulled her fingers away from his, ignoring his wince as though her movements had hurt his feelings, and he dropped his hand back to his side.

They walked in silence around the edge of the Ballroom, until the Doctor pulled her into a passageway that led deeper into the palace. "This way," he told her softly.

She didn't even look at where they were going, didn't even look at the amazing architecture, the detailed carvings and pictures that adorned every wall and column and outcropping, beautiful artistry that had so captivated her interest as they were led through the hallway to the Ball. Instead, she concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, concentrated on not thinking about what was going to happen once he was satisfied they were out of sight, concentrated on not letting her tears and fear show in her eyes. Once again, she felt glad for the mask that hid her face, only she had a sudden desire for a pair of sunglasses too.

"In here." The room he led her into didn't have any lamps lighting it, unlike the passageway they had just stepped from, but there was enough light coming in from the hall and the windows to adequately light the room. The Doctor released her arm and started rummaging through his pockets, and Bec deliberately set her mind to appreciating how well the room had been designed to exploit light. Despite the minimal lighting defusing in from outside, the room still seemed bright and well lit. She stepped up to the window and looked down on the party below.

"Bec," the Doctor's voice called softly behind her, but she ignored him. She pretended to herself that she couldn't hear his soft noise of approach as she spied the buffet table on the grass that he'd told her about. She didn't react as he took her arm and gently raised it, holding her on her bare forearm, just below the ruffled sleeve. She refused to acknowledge him as he waited, pretending he wasn't even there. After a moment, she heard him sigh, and he began carefully exposing her elbow so he could administer the injection.

Outwardly, she fought to give no indication that she was even aware of him, punishing him by refusing to have anything to do with him. Inwardly, however, she was screaming obscenities at him, crying in her anger and fear, willing him to stop, but she bottled it away, refusing to let him see. She would give him nothing.

"I'm sorry," she heard him say while the needle was in her arm. His voice was strangely thick, but she merely turned her face further from him.

As soon as he took the syringe from her vein, he retreated a good few steps. She hadn't spoken a word, but he had felt her emotions twisting in hate and fear. All the words she had spoken in her anger back on the TARDIS were at the forefront of his mind. At that moment, he almost hated the Bond. Hated that it had grown to the point where he could sense their emotions so powerfully when he touched them. Hated that the only times he was allowed to sense them as members of his family was when their hatred for him was at its greatest. At least with Cathryn's last injection, he could brush off everything he'd sensed as merely being the result of the instability of her mind, but Bec hadn't reached that point. Her thoughts were her own, and yet she hated him.

He had intended to take her down to the feast, to introduce her to some of the bounteous delicacies of eighteenth century France, but instead he needed to flee as far from her as he could. _'Even your very family reject you,'_ Reinette has said, and he felt crushed by the weight of loneliness.

"You can go down to the lawn if you want," the Doctor offered, keeping his voice light as he backed away. "Just keep following the corridor and you'll find a set of stairs to the lower garden."

The Doctor fled from the room, back towards the great hall, but he didn't enter though he could clearly see into the room from where he stood. From the moment they had entered that little sitting room, Bec hadn't even acknowledged him. She had told him that she wanted nothing from him, and now nothing was what she was offering him. He stood in a dark nook in the hallway, his head pressed back against wall and his eyes on the ceiling as he tried not to be overwhelmed by his despair.

"Doctor?" a voice reached out to him after a few minutes.

He turned and saw Reinette standing by the entrance to the Ballroom.

"Reinette," he smiled, pushing off the wall to greet her.

"Whatever is troubling you?" she asked him before he could get another word out.

He opened his mouth to lie, to assure him that everything was fine, but he faltered. Reinette had seen a glimpse into his mind. She knew him better than anyone, except perhaps Rose, and she wouldn't believe his assurances of his wellbeing. He broke her gaze, shaking his head as he turned his eyes away. "They hate me," he admitted softly.

"They don't know you," Reinette countered. "Wouldn't that be fair to say?"

"Oh no." He sighed, thinking of both his girls and their integrating ancestral knowledge. The acute insight they had on him. "I would say they know me and what I've done all too well."

"Do they understand why you took such actions?" Reinette took a step closer. "The King of France makes decisions that affect the populace yet those few out in the country may understand little of his decisions." She paused. "They don't see the weight on his shoulders. The weight he carried with each treaty he must sign or consider. The soldiers he must send into war. The affairs of the whole country mean little to the individual and without any basis for comparison they feel fit to judge without the benefit of the same standard." She raised her eyebrows. "Was it not the same with you? A lonely little boy. Travelling alone. In and out of time. Making sure all the pieces stayed together and did not fall apart?" Her inquiry was soft.

He looked at the courtesan in disbelief and awe. "How were you able to see so much in my mind?" The Time Lord in his own admittance had not had his mind touched in such a way for so many years. Was it centuries? He tried to remember how long it had been since he had to destroy Gallifrey to prevent the destruction of the universe. "You're just human. It shouldn't even be…."

"Just human?"Reinette said coyly. "Or only a woman."

"I never said that," he refuted as he was unable to resist, his fingers brushing her temple only to inhale deeply through his nose, remembering himself as he started to break contact.

She only took his hand to capture his hand. "It's alright." Her smile was captivating. "We can dance inside your soul just as you used to in your memory."

He pressed his lips together, swallowing hard, remembering those delightful times so long ago when Time Lords danced along a harmony of pure thought. "The King…." He spoke vocally and telepathically. "He's still expecting you."

"Ah, but he's been currently entertained with Cathryn." She eyes lit up teasingly. "And I don't believe she even knows."

He turned around in alarm to see Cathryn and her escort dressed entirely as topiary finishing a dance as the very same man offered his granddaughter his arm to guide her to the buffet table where they started to both share a glass of wine. He sighed, feeling slightly amused. The point of a masquerade was to keep your identity secret and from what he saw, Cathryn was all too well playing her part.

So, thus began their real dance. Such like the one that used to take place on Gallifrey. A superb event. Time Lords would dance with both body and mind. For now, it was only Reinette and himself. One of pure thought. They moved in sequence as he guided her through the Time Lord Waltz while listening to the strains of the harp play throughout the room. Time Lords had this piece of equipment as well and on particular occasions, he played back the songs from the annual event on his TARDIS. It took him decades to hear it without being overcome by sorrow but now, he thought it comforting. But even now, just participating in this event with this woman was a joy to his senses and for those moments, his despair lessened as he allowed his mind to glide back on a memory preserved to almost near perfection just like a piece of Time Lord art.

xxxxxxxxxx

Cathryn broke away from her escort who insisted on showing her the decadent sugar sculpture of a Yew Tree in celebration for the hunt he spoke of attending. Of course, he kept his identity mysterious, as did she. That was part of the game and the fun of masquerades. The pretense. To be anyone you wanted to be. But after two glasses of wine, she was dizzy and tired. Dancing with a corset was no small feat and the only reason she managed so well was her ability to practice each year with that particular waltz since San Francisco held a similar event during the Christmas holidays.

She had seen the Doctor manage to corner Bec who wasn't able to refuse and since Cathryn was already dancing, she couldn't intervene. All of that aside, her etiquette would be considered abysmal if she broke off the dance she was currently engaged in to cut in on the Doctor's dance. It simply wasn't her place. At least, not in this century. She had grimaced slightly, thankful that the mask had cloaked her conflicting emotions.

"Jealousy, my lady?" her escort asked after the dance was complete as she glanced at the pair that distracted her. He misinterpreted her obvious stare and Cathryn only sighed. "It doesn't suit you."

"Merely, concern my lord." Cathryn responded, thinking quickly. "She's a relation of mine and most often keeps away from such formal affairs. Our guardian makes her rather uncomfortable and it was him who pressed her into a dance."

"And you wished to intervene on her behalf," he observed. "A very considerate act to do for one's family since from your tone, you don't welcome the attention either."

"My apologies. I should have made no mention of it. It must concern you very little with our familial affairs," Cathryn said, feeling as though she dug herself into a rather deep hole and was compelled now to extract herself from it.

Fortunately, the frivolity of the event led them to the buffet table where he offered her a glass of wine in a goblet, which she accepted considering wine far safer than water in this 18th century. The lack of modern fermentation procedures caused far more juicer notes to be observed and the beverage was richer in texture. Remembering, her wine education, she picked up a piece of roasted meat coated in a rich red sauce to complement the flavor. At least, she knew with some measure of certainty, France didn't use cumin, chili pepper or soy in their foods at this period in history so all she had to be watchful for was ensuring that the meat was well cooked.

Finally managing to pardon herself from the individual she danced with, she drifted just near the corridor outside the Great Hall, her eyebrows flared up in surprise to see the Doctor and Reinette engaged in a conversation. The last vestiges of it. Despite the din, she could hear their voices. His fingers had just pulled away from the other woman's temples with a look of awe.

"How did you enjoy the dance?" Reinette was asking him.

"It's been far too long," was all he could manage, breathing deeply. "If only…."

"If only, your family would permit such contact." She paused before tilting her head to the side. "In time they will. Your Rose was right. They need patience. More patience than you might be prepared to give." She gave him a look of consideration. "All of you have had your losses yet at the same time, have any of you been privy to experience freedom?"

"Freedom?" he repeated. Time Lords were raised with a strict duty. Children had to be carefully controlled since they were loomed with the third strand of Time Lord TNA, which allowed for psionic perception. They didn't know about choice because since the time of their inception, the decision was already made for them. But Bec and Cathryn were born and not loomed, raised as human. Rose had brought up this very concern before and to this he frowned in concern.

"I perhaps have not known much freedom either," Reinette admitted. "Poisson. A family of fish. I am mocked and jeered by opponents with that title. They stand against me and my family's ambition but it is the only decision I have right now. What it means to be a woman. I've always known, been raised to such expectation. That was my choice. To refuse my ambition or accept it." She looked the Doctor straight in the eyes. "What choices will you offer your children? How many paths are offered or is there merely one?"

"My grandchildren. My only family detest me." His voice was almost empty in grief. "Having to do what is needed to keep them healthy…..they said they would rather die than spend the rest of their lives with me."

"Children say many things in the heat of an argument," Reinette told him softly.

"Only in this case, it stands to reason that it's true." His face was filled with utter dejection and the emotions seemed to come off him in waves that Cathryn, observing just around a corner could seem to sense the pure sorrow, the rejection and the despondency. Feelings that so mimicked her own starting when the doctors told her she would lose her father within a year. She knew Bec was no stranger to such pain and she felt herself shaking while she folded her hands into the crimson skirt. She knew Bec and herself would depart as soon as the TARDIS entered Pete's World. Maybe that strategy propelled her into action or the fact for this one moment she was reminded that she herself shouldn't be cruel while accusing someone else of such an act. Or perhaps it was the pain she recognized so aptly in herself and wanting to engender some trust from this tattered adventure so it would be worthwhile.

Perhaps, because like the Doctor, she wouldn't be able to say goodbye and this would be her only offering as a measure of comfort or remembrance. She nodded to herself. _I don't need to be cruel either._ It was with that thought; she stepped out from around the corner and into the hallway, the noise from her shoes or that of her smell suddenly becoming more pervasive as the Doctor turned to look at her in surprise.

"I don't hate you." Cathryn wasn't going to pretend she hadn't listened in. "But….that is to say…..we may not understand you. May never understand you. I…." She looked between the two. "I'm not sure what else to tell you." To offer any false sentiment would be a lie and she simply wouldn't permit herself to go that far.

The Time Lord's face relaxed, feeling a small hope start to well up inside of him. "It's alright Cathryn. Thank you." She didn't hate him. Not understanding him made sense. His granddaughters after all were very young and there would be time for comprehension in the coming years. "I appreciate your honesty." He glanced at Reinette who smiled while nodding as he approached his granddaughter. "My lady?" he offered. "Might I have this dance?"

Cathryn looked at Reinette in consternation while the woman gave her a gentle, encouraging glance for which Cathryn could only sigh. The Doctor wasn't trying to physically harm them but in a sense, he was replicating the image of a father/daughter dance. She remembered when her father did the same during her own friend's wedding reception when the DJ gave that announcement. It was the last time she had taken to dance with her father in such a similar event. A lump formed in her throat knowing just in that sense alone, this would be a painful exercise.

"Cathryn?" the Doctor asked as he held out his hand and finally she accepted without protest. After all, this would be their last dance. Their last adventure. Perhaps her whim of compassion would allow him these pleasant memories before Bec and Cathryn disappeared from him forever.

"Reinette," she started in desperation as the Doctor was about to lead her onto the dance floor. "Could you please look after Bec? I know the ball is a bit intimidating for her. Just check in on her if you could." Those were words safe to say but really, she wanted Reinette to offer Bec some comfort. After all, this woman, this courtesan, was wise, born far more intelligent beyond her years. From what she overheard, she had been trying to help them both while never failing to be a willing ear to the Doctor's pain. The courtesan with her diplomacy could at least offer some vestige of solace in Bec's direction.

"It would be my pleasure." Reinette assured her. "I always enjoy her company as infrequent as it is. It is my own honor to be watched over by so many guardian angels." The Doctor told her where to find Bec, and she left as Cathryn cringed internally thinking about Reinette's future protracted illness with Tuberculosis. During this period, they called it consumption for the disease seemed to consume everything in its wake. With Cathryn's free hand, she brushed the rosary that hid underneath her dress. One brought from home and a gift from her first communion that she treasured. Touching the beads briefly, she watched Reinette's departing back, struggling to find hope.

 _Hope._ Thinking of the name of Bec's little girl who had passed away from Congenital Muscular Dystrophy with a rare variation of the condition. A baby conceived with a death sentence imposed upon her. Tears came to her eyes but perhaps that was the purpose of Hope. Even the presence and love of a child for such a short time was meaningful. Nothing was without significance. And as certain as Cathryn was about her faith, she knew that little girl's soul was in the hands of God.

"Penny for your thoughts?" The Doctor purposefully used an American phrase.

"Do you believe in God?" Cathryn asked directly as the Doctor looked at her briefly perplexed.

The Doctor winced internally. He was a man of science and grounded in knowledge. Finally he spoke. "Well, it's a little complicated. There are many things in the universe even I don't understand but I've always accepted a principle."

Without even giving it too much thought, they had both started dancing. The Doctor was pleasantly surprised that Cathryn knew this classical waltz. Was it her ancestral memory or the start of her awakening telepathy? He didn't feel her presence overtly inside his own mind and it gave him certain curiosity.

"Which is?" the brunette inquired, drawing the Doctor back to the topic at hand.

"The Great Moral Dialectic," the old Time Lord explained. "A few principles were taught on Gallifrey. Many Time Lords thought themselves above conventional morality." He nodded briefly. "Sinning as you understand it is not found in Gallifreyan culture."

"But you don't accept that approach," Cathryn pondered. After all, there had to be a reason why the Doctor had his share of run ins with the Celestial Intervention Agency resulting in numerous consequences at the hands of that task force.

"No. The Great Moral Dialectic states that the Moral Universe refines itself towards goodness just as the physical universe keeps expanding."

"Refines itself towards goodness," she repeated. "But what is that goodness? If the universe is dependent upon it, couldn't that also be God?"

"Well, I s'pose that is one way of looking at it. Nothing wrong with it. But the general aspects of the position are reality leads to complexity, which leads to life, which leads to civilization, which leads to ethics." He met his granddaughter's eyes. "That would lead to the ultimate superiority of Good over Evil."

"Cultural anthropology, which eventually results in the Golden Mean." Cathryn still thought this principle or belief of the Doctor didn't exclude God but certainly it wasn't faith based. Even when he defined it, he spoke of goodness needing to balance out the universe and the complexity of reality.

"The Golden Mean?" the Doctor asked as Cathryn allowed herself a small smile thinking of the standard phrase often utilized in the bible while at the same time referencing a media term.

"Do unto others as you have would have them do unto you. In whatever approach you take, opt for the route of least harm for the benefits of the many." She paused briefly. "But also be truthful and have integrity." She enjoyed that little jab for the Doctor lied far too often or simply left information out when speaking to those he supposedly respected. When Cathryn told half-truths, it was usually in a time of conflict or towards a frightful opponent. Otherwise, she usually didn't prefer to lie by omission as a common practice. Not anymore. She had seen it used so many times now by politicians, celebrities and professors. It left a bitter taste in her mouth, so with the care she usually consumed alcohol, she decided to only lie by omission in moderation. It wasn't clever or a game to play on an unsuspecting person and how many times could she cry out ' _wolf'_ referenced in Aesop's Fables,until people no longer believed the truth even when she offered it to the fullest extent?

 _Wolf… Bad wolf._ Somewhere Rose and Mickey were about to cut into spare parts for the ship. Once the song ended, the Time Lord simply stated, "I believe we should find Rebecca and Reinette."

Cathryn only nodded but couldn't help but notice he took hold of two goblets of wine from the buffet table. _One for the robot and one for himself?_ Briefly, she rolled her eyes. _Well then, couldn't hurt for me to take one._ Even with the beverage gone, the goblet, inlaid with gold and silver would make for a wonderful souvenir.

xxxxxxxxxx

The young courtesan entered the dark room where the Doctor had fled from Bec. "Reinette. You're supposed to be enjoying the dance," she heard the woman softly call, but it took her eyes a while to adjust to the darkness enough to find her friend sitting by the window.

"I could offer the same rebuke," the courtesan teased lightly as she approached, moving carefully through the murky room.

"Yeah, I'm not really much of a party person," Bec replied with a diffident shrug. Her eyes softened when she glanced back out the window. "But at least they all seem to be having fun," she commented wistfully, enjoying the sight of the happy partygoers below her. She could happily sit back and enjoy the excited atmosphere without feeling the need to join in herself, living vicariously through the joy of others.

"Not all of them," Reinette corrected softly, thinking of the despairing Time Lord.

Bec guessed whom Reinette was referring to but didn't comment. If he was hurt because he refused to see how he was hurting them, that was his own fault.

"He cares greatly for you," Reinette told her as she sat in the adjacent arm chair.

Bec shook her head and smiled ruefully. "No he doesn't. Maybe he thinks he does, maybe he tries to, but he doesn't. People who care wouldn't do what he does."

"I have seen his mind. He only wants what is best for you. He wants you to be safe."

Bec shook her head lightly again. "That's how he sees it," she murmured. "He knows people, humans. He should know better."

"Then show me," Reinette requested, turning to face the traveller front on. "Show me as the Doctor has done. I have seen his pain but not your own."

"I wouldn't know how," she admitted ruefully. As curious as she found the subject, especially as a construct to be explored literarily, she didn't actually like the idea of telepathy, of having all her thoughts and secrets exposed to another. The thought of having someone else invade her mind, or even herself invading the mind of another, was simply frightening. However, she still found the concept intriguing.

"What was it like?" Bec asked curiously.

"It was... strange," she admitted. "But not unwelcome. I know my own thoughts, but it was as though I did not recognise my own voice until I heard the voice of another. He's different from us. His thoughts were strange to me, but his feelings are strong."

Bec nodded, remembering the 'sound' of the Doctor's voice in her mind when, back in that cafe when this nightmare had begun, he forced his thoughts into her head. On that occasion, however, he had only given a command to be obeyed rather than the sharing of thoughts Reinette had experienced.

"Why did you thank me?" she asked, deliberately steering the conversation away from the complicated subject of telepathy and her relationship or lack thereof with the Doctor.

Reinette smiled fondly at the memory. That event had been so many years ago for her, but, from what she'd understood from the Doctor it was much more recent for her not-so-imaginary friends. "I have faced many hardships in my life," the courtesan admitted. "But whenever I felt most afraid I remembered you, yourself and the Doctor, I remembered I didn't have to fear my nightmares." The young woman glanced away. "I have lived since then. I know more of the world and it's suffering, and yet I still have no need to fear. The Almighty brought you to me when I had need, and I am sure He will do so again, just as you came tonight."

Bec leaned in and took Reinette's hands, recognising a kindred suffering in the way she spoke. "What happened?" she asked softly. "What didn't we save you from?"

Reinette's eyes fell to their clasped hands and she tightened her grip, but retained her dignified composure. "My son," she answered quietly. "He was such a beautiful babe. So healthy and full of life." The woman took a breath and her eyes clouded. "But illness took him from me. He never lived long enough to leave my breast. He should be in his third year."

"Oh, Reinette, I'm so sorry," Bec told her, sympathy for the woman pouring out, as she cursed her lack of historical knowledge. "I never knew. I'm sorry we weren't there."

"It was the will of the Lord," Reinette told her softly. "And I know he is cradled in the arms of the Almighty. And He blessed me with my daughter, Alexandrine." The woman smiled. "My family calls her Fanfan for short and she's a treasure. She has given me solace and joy in his wake."

Bec smiled gently, encouraged by the woman's faith, so she decided to share her own. "There's a passage in the Book of Isaiah that means a lot to me. Let's see if I can still recite it." Bec closed her eyes for a moment, concentrating as she pulled the verse to the forefront of her mind.

 _"'The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart;_

 _the devout are taken away, and no one understands_

 _that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.'"_

Bec opened her eyes again, and met Reinette's tearful gaze. "I have two little boys back at home," she explained, "but I had four children. I lost my daughter Amara Hope, and my son Zachary a few years later. They were both very sick while I carried them and then they were stillborn. Amara means eternal, so her name means eternal hope. Zachary means 'the Lord remembered'. I'm sorry for your loss, Reinette, but if he is in the arms of the Lord, then think of all the evils and suffering he has been saved from. And you will see him again when Christ returns to make the world new. You can hope in Him, and He will always remember you." She gently repeated the ideas that she had comforted herself and her own children with.

"Thank you, my friend," Reinette said quietly, echoing the words she had whispered years before.

"I'm sorry we weren't there," Bec replied softly.

Reinette smiled gently at the kindness of her friend. "And yet you are here now to provide comfort that I sorely missed," she answered.

Bec hesitated for a moment. Should she warn Reinette that they wouldn't always be there? Warn her that a day was coming when they would arrive too late to save her? The warning sat on the tip of her tongue as she remembered the sight of the coffin being drawn away in a carriage, but she left it unsaid. It would add no benefit to Reinette to know now. If anything it might only cause greater concern for the young woman, especially if she misinterpreted her words to refer to the coming of the clockbots. _No_. Reinette was wise enough to understand that one day, like all people, she would die and the Doctor couldn't save her.

She offered Reinette a gentle smile as the other woman took a breath and gathered herself. "You may not be inclined towards the dance, but have you been out to the garden yet?"

"No, I sort of stopped here," Bec admitted, glancing around the homey little sitting room.

Reinette stood, still holding the reluctant traveller's hands. "Then I am remiss in performing my role of host, a failing which I must rectify immediately," she announced with a grin.

Bec returned the cheeky grin and followed the young woman out into the cool night. They were walking arm in arm through the well-kept garden, Reinette sharing stories of her infant daughter and Bec reminiscing of her own boy's infancy, when the Doctor and Cathryn found them again, both holding wine goblets.

"Had a nice night?" the Time Lord asked amicably.

"Oh... You know," Bec responded mildly, deliberately avoiding giving an answer even as she let the tone of her response falsely sound positive. She didn't meet the Doctor's gaze, even though she felt it upon her. "Did you dance with any topiary?" she asked Cathryn instead.

Cathryn grinned widely at her friend. "Yes," she laughed. "I've never met a more dignified tree."

"Reinette," the girl's heard the Doctor say. They both knew from the show how deeply he felt for the young French aristocrat, and yet they were surprised and moved by the warmth of his voice. "Thank you for the dance, but it's time for us to be heading back."

Back. Back from Versaille to the spaceship with the clockwork droids they knew to dread. Bec's hands clenched in her skirts as Reinette looked at the trio in nervous trepidation. "Must you leave so soon?" Her face was pale. Anyone could see she was terrified. These robots were coming for her and she didn't even know when or how to put up any kind of defense.

"I'm afraid so," the Doctor attempted to assure her. "But we will return."

This hardly seemed to mollify the courtesan who looked at Cathryn and Bec with anxiety. She would once again by left on her own for the years to come to fend for herself against these monsters wanting to dissect her.

"Not one among you could stay with me?" Reinette pleaded, swallowing hard and Cathryn took a deep breath. They couldn't stay. For Reinette, the path she walked for the next few years was one she had to navigate on her own. But then….

A thought occurred to her as she took a few steps in the courtesans direction, lifting her rosary out of her pocket that she had been given for first communion.

"Keep their minds steadfast in trusting You, and give them Your perfect peace. May they turn to the Lord of Peace who will give them peace at all times, in every way." She deposited her rosary, one of the few sacred things she brought from home into Reinette's hand. "It may not be of much value but the message is the same. Even if we're not there, God will be, Reinette and He will see you through this." She briefly nodded. "So don't let your heart be troubled."

Reinette wrapped the multicolored chain around her wrist, looking at the silver cross with a smile. "Perhaps little in monumental value but the gift is a measure beyond price." She looked at Cathryn. "I will treasure this."

"Then, take care." Cathryn embraced her quickly, followed by Bec for which Reinette squeezed her hand tightly. The two girls followed the Doctor back through the mirror onto the ship.

His notice of Rose and Mickey's absence was immediate and he ventured quickly down the hallway, much to Bec and Cathryn's annoyance as he managed to meander several feet ahead of him. Unfortunately, the noise he produced while singing, drowned out the scuffle from behind, neither Bec or Cathryn were adequately prepared to be gripped from behind and needle injected into their necks causing a very sudden and deliberate loss of consciousness. The clockwork droids transporting away with their newly acquired parts, left not a trace, giving either girl, not one opportunity to scream.

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 **Authors' note:**

 **Thank you for all your continued support and reviews. We do appreciate all your encouragement.**

 **And thank you Almadynis Rayne, Fan Fictional Authoress and LovelyAmberLight for all your insight, technical advice, thoughts and guidance.**

 **Until next time. Thank you so much for reading.**

 _ **azaadin & emptyvoices**_


	8. Blood Feud

**Chapter 8: Blood Feud**

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Bec groggily woke up, not quite remembering falling asleep or understanding why she felt so uncomfortable, but her mind clicked rapidly into gear as she realised she was blinking blearily at one of the clockbots, who stood angularly over her. She swore under her breath, her eyes wide. This is very bad. _This is all kinds of very, very bad!_ She thought, terrified.

The clockbot was staring at her, its head tilted eerily to one side, but it made no move towards her as she froze, powerless before it. She briefly tugged at her restraints; identical to those she'd seen on Rose and Mickey on the show, and just as impossible to escape from. _Why did I toss that sonic screwdriver?_ She berated herself, even though, logically, she knew she wouldn't be able to reach it to free herself anyway.

When the droid continued to not move, she fearfully glanced around the room. _Maybe they've stopped_ , she speculated hopefully. _Maybe the Doctor's thrown that lever to turn them off, been to France and they've given up._

She heard a groan beside her and found Cathryn strapped to the corresponding table. Rose and Mickey had to be in another room. _Doctor_ , she silently pleaded. _You'd better save us too!_

"No! Let us go!" Cathryn cried out as she recognised their predicament.

Bec's heart got stuck in her throat when the robot that had been motionlessly staring at her turned sharply, marching with a mechanical gait and stood before the occupant of the other dentist-like chair. She tried to shout out in their defense as Cathryn did, but she felt winded, like she couldn't draw enough breath, and she couldn't move her mouth to form the words she needed. "No," she tried to shout, but her voice wasn't even as strong as a broken whisper.

Cathryn's heart pounded frantically inside her chest as she wondered, despite their efforts to remain in the Doctor's presence, were they now to be carved up as additional parts for the ship? Where was Rose and Mickey? Had they changed things so dramatically that-

A bell chimed from somewhere nearby. It sounded familiar to Bec, and she hoped it was the same tone that called the clockbots to France, hoped they would leave them unharmed. "What does that mean?" she asked. Her voice was barely stronger than a whisper and her voice cracked multiple times in the short phrase, but the droid turned its head sharply to her and answered her question just the same.

"Scanning complete. You are compatible."

Bec suddenly let out a scream as one of the clockwork droids inserted a needle in her arm without warning. Cathryn struggled beneath the constricting metal bands as the droid nearest her did the same. "What are you doing?" she demanded. "Let us go!"

"You are compatible," were the dreaded words that were issued from the droid.

"Compatible?" Bec protested. "You're going to cut us up too?" It was now her worst fear come to life.

"Our ship needs fuel. You are compatible."

 _Fuel_ ,Cathryn thought in horror. Another needle was inserted into her other arm and she could only piece together in stunned shock what they were doing. It wasn't organs the clockwork droids wanted from them. It was their blood. Their blood to fuel the ship. _God, help us_ , she prayed silently as she watched the clockwork droid go to Bec's other side to put in the second needle. To drain her blood even more rapidly. She felt dizzy. It was a wretched way to die.

"Don't!" Cathryn protested. "You don't need hers too. Not like that. If you wait…" She was pleading with an artificial intelligence that might not register what she was saying. "If you use some of my blood and wait, my body will make more." She took a deep breath. "More fuel. Please…" she protested.

"The ship needs fuel now. You are both compatible." Cathryn's eyes widened as her heart sank. She heard Bec cry out as the second needle went into her friend's arm. She already felt dizzy as dark spots danced in front of her eyes. Where was the Doctor?

Then she knew. Rose and Mickey were in a separate room. By the time he would arrive to where Bec and Cathryn were located, it would likely be too late. Cathryn only closed her eyes. She never imagined this would be the way her life would end but as fatigue settled in, she did acknowledge there were likely so many worse ways for her to die.

Bec's arms burned with pain, but no matter how she struggled, there was no dislodging the catheters in either arm. _No! No! Please!_ she wordlessly begged. The needles weren't inserted in the crook of her elbows, but rather forced deeply into each forearm, and Bec quickly began feeling lightheaded. _Arteries_ , she realised. They were drawing blood from their arteries and not their veins. _They're going to drain us... We're going to die._

The Doctor was supposed to save them. This wasn't supposed to happen. How could they have fallen into this world of make believe simply to die?

Beside her, Cathryn had whimpered into silence, and Bec too felt the world beginning to recede as she unwillingly relaxed in the chair, even the pain in her arms was lessening.

 _Matty, Micah, I'm sorry. I can't come home._

She felt like she was falling asleep, and her closing eyelids pushed out the tears that had gathered in her eyes so they ran down each cheek. Somewhere far away, she heard a muffled cacophony of noise, but even that slowly slipped away from her.

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The Doctor quickly unstrapped Rose and Mickey. He needed to close the time windows, but he needed to find Cathryn and Rebecca first. _'Don't leave us behind,'_ they'd begged him after he refused to let them stay behind. They'd been so afraid! _'A spaceship filled with clockwork droids.'_ They obviously knew more than they were saying, and there had been visionaries in his family. Had they known that they would be taken?

"What about Bec and Cathryn?" Mickey asked, peering at the entrance around the motionless machines as though he expected them to appear now the robots had stopped.

"Doctor?" Rose asked softly after he ignored Mickey in favour of searching the dysfunctional computer.

"They were taken," he growled, anger infusing every word.

It didn't take long for him to find the information he needed on the husk of a computer system that remained to the ship. Another room a few floors away had the same amount of power diverted to it as the room they currently resided in, where Rose and Mickey had been confined.

"This way!" he yelled at the others, expecting them to follow.

He swerved through countless corridors, each second ticking in his mind as he recounted with horror what he pulled from the ships data stream. Compatible. Their blood was found compatible because the droids had detected the high levels of artron bonded to the platelets in their blood stream. The droids intended to drain both his girls to power the ship. They would waste no time but do it in the quickest and most efficient way possible. The alien swallowed, pushing away his own mounting nausea, alarmed that the comforting presence in his mind the girls occupied was quieting. The one steadily growing had diminished so rapidly. Was now so faint. But still, in that echo, he followed it.

Sonicking open the door that acted as a barricade, his hearts clenched at what he saw. There was no time to waste. The goblet of wine that had he had refilled with anti-oil had been abandoned where Rose and Mickey had been held. _It's my fault._ He berated himself. _Thought they were right behind me and…._ immediately he headed to the computer console as the clockwork droids, aware of his presence, started to turn, postures threatening.

"Your presence is not authorized." The statement issued from one. "We need the parts."

"Oh do you now?" the Doctor challenged as one moved, a sharp instrument in hand to stab at the Time Lord. He dodged quickly but the blade parried just against his forearm. A minor cut but only added to his fury while the robot moved, blocking his access to the computer. The two other droids were quickly approaching.

"Oh ho, ho, ho, ho, brilliant. It's you." Looking stormily at the droid in front of him. "You're my favourite, you are. You are the best! Do you know why? Because you're so thick. You're Mister Thick Thick Thickity Thick Face from Thicktown, Thickania. And so's your dad." Once more, the insults seemed to have no impact on the droid, who remained unmovable, blocking the Doctor's presence. "But you will move out of my way." His voice was dark.

"The ship needs fuel. They are compatible," the droid repeated, his metal fingers holding the object ready for another blow. The blade arched swiftly and then…

A vast swishing of spray froze the clockwork droid in its tracks. The Doctor turned to see Mickey rushing in using the canister, the young man's face a mask of anger while he looked at Bec and Cathryn unconscious on the beds.

"You hurt my friends," Mickey started. "You'll be havin' me to deal with."

"And me." Rose's voice was heightened by temper as she leveled the can at the two other droids, choosing one, focusing the power spray or 'ice gun' as Mickey with affection called it before, freezing her target into place.

The Doctor looked at his companions briefly in thanks before accessing the panel and turning the off switch, shutting the droids in the room down. Immediately, he went to Bec and Cathryn, accessed the machine, connected to their tubing, shutting it down completely. His face was mottled with fury. The very blood they had taken from his granddaughters was useless, upon performing a scan. While extracted, it was also being converted to feed into the ship's engines. Returning this substance to them, would provide no benefit and likely could kill them.

But he needed to act fast. The tubes were dangling by their arms for his use and he retained a supply of his own blood on the ship should he ever need it.

"Rose," He started, turning to his blond companion. "I need you to run, quick as you can, to the ship. Go to my laboratory. Access the containment tank at the right of my work station. There is a silver container. Looks a bit like a laptop. One big circle with three circles intersecting the larger one." He took a deep breath. "You need to hurry."

"Back in a minute." Rose said. "Less than that if I can manage it." She immediately sprinted away at high speed.

The Doctor was already running his sonic over his girls, muttering to himself, as he searched through pieces of equipment until he found one he was looking for. A syringe. Mickey was taken by surprise as the Doctor suddenly inserted the needle into his own vein extracting two vials of his own blood before tossing the said syringe aside. He moved over to Bec and Cathryn.

"What are you doing?" Mickey demanded. "How do you even know this will work?" Your blood…" He paused. "You said they aren't fully Time Lord. What if you kill them?"

The Doctor shook his head, impatiently. "If I don't do it, they will die in the next minute. This will buy me time until Rose gets back and I can modify my blood to work with their physiology."

"So, it isn't dangerous, then?" Mickey wanted to be sure. "Doing this won't kill them?"

"It's not ideal." The Time Lord muttered. "But it's all I can do right now. Until I have the correct substitute." He grimaced, knowing that using his blood would feel downright unpleasant when they woke, which they might once he was done. But he didn't have the time to argue the point with Mickey. Immediately, he went to each girl, injecting them with syringe of his blood and watched his sonic as their heart beats became steadily stronger. Cathryn opened her eyes with a groan as Bec only found herself back in the lab. So weak, unable to move.

"Cathryn?" she managed.

"It's alright, Bec," the Doctor's voice soothed. "I'm here now. Everything is going to be fine."

 _How was it alright?_ Bec only sighed as she struggled with her leaden arms and legs. "I can't move." Her words were faint.

"Neither can I." Cathryn's voice was also only just a whisper.

"You're fine. You're going to be just fine," he assured them softly. He comfortingly stroked Cathryn's head from her forehead and up over her hair as he scanned them both again. Their vital signs were balanced on a knife's edge. He just had to keep them alive long enough for Rose to get back and to prepare the blood for them. He was glad their physiology had already altered enough over the past few days that their human blood groups had disappeared. If they hadn't been compatible with him...

"What about Reinette?" Cathryn asked. She found it hard to talk, like her mouth and head was stuffed full of cotton balls; she just couldn't think clearly.

"Don't worry about her, we'll save her next," he assured his granddaughter.

He made sure he was touching both girls, holding Bec's hand while his other rested on Cathryn's head. He poured a calmness he didn't feel into them. It was paramount that they remain settled. With their blood levels so depleted, an increase in the speed of their heartbeats would be disastrous.

"Stay with me, Bec," he encouraged the girl, vocally and telepathically, as he felt her starting to slip towards unconsciousness once more. "You're boys. Tell me about your boys."

Bec's features softened and her lips turned upward into the ghost of a grin. "They're such ratbags," she whispered fondly. "Always fighting with each other. They love their Lego. They build spaceships. Micah calls me Mummum."

"Bec, you need to stay awake for your boys, for your family. Can you do that for me?" _Stay awake for your family_ , he urged her silently. He almost heaved a sigh of relief as he felt her fighting the lethargy that smothered her. She opened her eyes and blinked at him blearily. "That's it. Good girl. Stay with me," he encouraged.

He turned back to Cathryn to engage her as well, and was relieved to hear the distant heavy footsteps of Rose returning echoing down the halls towards them.

"Doctor, was this the one?" Rose checked, holding the case up before her.

"Perfect!" he responded. He looked back down at his granddaughters, his gaze shifting from one to the other as he spoke. "I'm going to let go now. You're okay, just remember you're okay. I need you both to stay calm for me." He heard the silent affirmation of their emotions and he let them go. They both groaned in pain as the full impact of their torture and his blood in their veins hit them without him dampening the sensation. He was still close enough and concentrating hard enough to emote to them through the family bond, but the impact was significantly reduced without physical contact between them. As the bond continued to grow, a short distance like this would no longer be a barrier for them.

He quickly scanned each of them again to get their most up to date readings for preparing their transfusions. "Keep them calm!" he ordered his human companions sharply. He only had minutes to adapt the supply he had for each of them, and those minutes would be for naught if they panicked and put extra stress on their already fragile systems.

Every second seemed to work against him as he adjusted the sinusoidal and endothelial cells to bond cohesively with the molecules so the protein could circulate the coagulation factor throughout the rest of the bloodstream. While he worked, his fingers flying over the equipment, he glanced at his girls with deep concern. The needles had taken arterial blood. They still stood at risk for deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism since their new Time Lord organs were in transition. Pulmonary tubing was only starting to form in placement of their lungs but at this stage, they were striving with the adaptation of the newer anatomy and contending or dependent on the remnants of their passing human physiology.

"Doctor," Rose started, gripping tightly to Bec's hand. "You're almost done, yeah? She…." The girl took a deep breath. "She's not talkin' and I don't know what to do."

"Just one more minute, Rose." He still kept the telepathic messages, the emotions surging through the bond. "Just keep talking to her. Keep her attention engaged." _Thirty more seconds._

Rose attempted to give Bec her best smile even under the insurmountable pressure. She almost didn't know what to say and Bec's attention seemed to flutter. Her eyes blinking fast. It appeared as though the paralysis that disabled the girls, making them lethargic, now had stricken Bec mute. What could she say? Biting her cheek, she started speaking at random. "Did you know there's a planet called Woman Wept?" She tried, awarded with Bec slightly widening her eyes as she seemed to focus on Rose. "Didn't believe him, yeah. Not for a moment. Thought he was all talk so I dared him." Out of the corner of Rose's eye, she could see the Doctor's expression soften, if not momentarily at the memory. Rose focused on Bec again. "We watched the whole sea freeze in the middle of an ice storm on a beach….I don't know, a few hundred miles across and it was amazin'."

"Over a thousand." The Doctor corrected, briefly smiling at the memory. He was almost ready.

"Just one of the things, I never thought I would see. Not in my life time but the Doctor took us there and it was beautiful." Rose said. "It was…. Bec!"

The girl's eyelids had closed as Rose reached out to grip her shoulders, lightly shaking her. "Bec!"

"Few more seconds!" The Time Lord was desperate. Was he about to lose them both?

Cathryn was barely clinging to consciousness when she heard….or in her muddled state, she thought she felt Bec slipping away. Her throat tightened. She couldn't speak either. Mickey had been talking to her and she heard the Doctor's words. _Have to stay alive for our family._ She thought. _My family. Bec's. They're waiting for us. We can't…._

Tears came to her eyes as she strained desperately to speak. It cost so much effort but her friend's name was so utterly prominent in her mind. _Bec? Bec!_ Did her lips work? Did she say the words? Did she-

"Bec's awake." Rose said, her voice filled with relief. "Thought she…" She shook her head. "Doctor, you can start, yeah?"

He had finished, already approaching his granddaughters, trying to stifle his shock at hearing the telepathic cry that radiated towards the bond. _They couldn't have known._ He told himself. _I haven't told them about the bond yet._ Inhaling deeply, he knew he had to set that aside for now as he got to work, using the tubing already connected to the girl's that was set in place to administer the now perfectly altered blood work compatible for their systems. _A minute more…_ The Time Lord thought silently. _A minute more and they would both be gone._ The thought alone caused both his hearts to clench in despair.

He began the administration of the transfusion to Bec first. She had lost more blood than her cousin, but he was fast enough that within a minute he turned to Cathryn to likewise attach the apparatus to the tubing in her arms. She groaned, but was too weak to wince away. "Stings. Cold," she whispered.

"I'm sorry," he comforted her, stroking her forehead again as he poured calming emotions into her again. "You need blood fast. It stings because of the quantity of blood being rapidly administered. Your body will warm the blood and bring it to full potential faster. The Artron content is slightly higher than you're used to, which will make your body feel sore, but it will facilitate healing."

He immediately turned to Bec, quickly assessing her recovery. Reassured, he took her hand, offering pain and anxiety relief in the form of him emotional projections, reaching back to likewise take Cathryn's hand so he could calm them both at once.

There was no more that could be done at this point. He could merely wait and be there until they stabilised, ready to react if anything went wrong. Unfortunately, that was exactly what happened.

The lever the Doctor had thrown to shutdown the repair droid reinitialised itself and the robots straightened with a mechanical whirr. Rose and Mickey jumped away from them, one of the humans releasing a short high-pitched squeal of surprise and fear. The Doctor merely glared at the droids, but didn't release his hold on his granddaughters, he wouldn't unless he had to. "You'd better think about it before you try something again," he warned them ominously.

A bell-like tone pinged, resonating through the room. "Instructions?" the Doctor asked, his voice scathing in his anger. "Message from command?"

"She is complete. It begins." The clockwork droid each raised one hand and angularly stabbed their wrists with the fingers of their other hand, disappearing in a sparkle of light, like golden dust dissipating up into the sky.

"What happened, where'd they go?" Mickey asked in surprise at the sudden departure of the intimidating machines.

"Reinette," he began explaining, his voice rapid and tense. "They must have found the right time window, after her thirty-seventh birthday."

"Why thirty-seven?" Rose asked.

"This ship is thirty-seven years old, and the computer was damaged in the ion storm. When she is thirty-seven, she will be 'complete'. Her brain will be compatible and she will become the new computer." The mocking tone of his voice made apparent his opinion on the inane hypothesis of the ships automated repair system.

"But that's awful!" Rose exclaimed.

"Mickey. I need you to start search for that time window. They've got a head start, so you'll have to be quick. Rose I need you to get a message to Reinette. Warn her they're coming and tell her I'll be there as soon as I can."

He watched his two companions leave while maintaining physical contact with both his girls as he carefully monitored their recovery while utilising strong emotions to act as a barricade for the discomfort during the treatment.

Cathryn's body tingled, feeling her skin ache to the very touch. Even just lying on the hard surface, feeling the distinctive itch of the garments bothered her. She grimaced in discomfort only to feel the increase of the calming sensations inside her mind, which appeared to act two fold. It also provided a discrete layer to the pain. Her mind idled at it. A friend once told her that having experienced the drug, Percoset, a narcotic and analgesic, for her it did not reduce the pain. She knew she was still in pain. She simply didn't care or mind the agony. At this very moment, Cathryn started to wonder if this was what her friend meant because now, she knew the pain existed but for that moment, she didn't care. She took a steadying breath at the sensation, truly wondering whether she should.

She glanced at Bec who now looked so much better. She had been scared for her earlier. Really scared. She thought for a moment…. she swallowed. What would she have done if she had lost Bec? She shivered at the thought even contemplating the emptiness. She would be hollow. It would be utterly….. ' _pain worse than death.'_ The phrase danced across her mind. But, then that was just a story. Still, Cathryn pressed her lips together, maybe it came from a real place. Losing anyone close to you brought an emotional grief worse than death itself.

Several minutes passed as the Doctor finished the procedure, finally able to detach them from the tubing, helping them both to sit up as Bec wearily rubbed her arms, wincing at the small puncture wounds the needles had left in their stead. The series of bruises that now permeated and discolored her arm. She clenched her fists, renewing her hatred of needles with a passion as Cathryn slowly stood up, examining her wounds left behind. They looked little better.

"At least, we're matching," Cathryn tried, clinging to the otherwise altered state this trauma provided. The shock and numbness, which ran through her mind, giving the room and present moment, a surreal quality.

Bec looked at Cathryn, briefly shaking her head as she tried to roll down the sleeves of the dress she was wearing. Parts of it were completely torn and ruined, it barely resembled the gown she newly wore for the masquerade ball. Her first thought when her friend made that comment, _'at least we're matching',_ went to the movie, 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I'. Her mind played on the scene when both Fred and George, having drunk the essence of Harry polyjuice potion, looked at each other, making the ironic observation, _'We're identical!'_ Certainly a comedic moment for them, since they were previously identical twins before the change occurred. _That is, until George lost his ear and then Fred…_ Bec frowned in brief commiseration of the fictional twins who were no longer twins by the end of the series given to tragic circumstances.

"Right," the Doctor muttered. "Before you do that," He gestured to Bec's movements of rolling down her sleeves, "You both need another injection."

Bec blinked her eyes in momentary confusion at what the Doctor was referring to, then realised his intent. Injections. The shots he had been giving them. She covered the crook of her arms almost as if by instinct, finding herself breathing hard at this new habit she picked up. Would this always be how it would proceed around him? One injection after another. One argument to ensue to the next. Until…. "Wait," she deferred. "Why now?"

"You need them." His voice was firm, brooking no room for argument although the paltry explanation did little to satisfy Cathryn.

"You gave them to us just over an hour ago." She was quick to throw back the timing. "You said twice a day. My math might not be the most proficient but I can still divide twenty four by two. We should have more than ten hours left."

"You would," the Doctor agreed. "Had your blood not been extracted and synthesized. The biodata injection requires that it bond to your blood molecule protein for proper coagulation into your bloodstream." He paused momentarily. "I'm sorry." He was regretful. The Time Lord felt responsible for losing sight of them both, especially after the promise he made. He thought…. weeell, it didn't matter now. What mattered was that both his granddaughters were looking at him with stares of reproach.

"No," Bec whispered, shaking her head and swallowing heavily. She couldn't even look at him, she simply sat awkwardly on her dentist chair hugging her arms tightly across her chest, clutching the insides of her elbows protectively.

The Time Lord looked down on his grandchildren with sympathy. Twice now he had allowed them to step out if his TARDIS, although he'd have preferred them to have stayed inside while at the Lourve, and both times they had suffered, first Sutekh's telepathic attack and now under the clockwork repair droids. He looked at Bec. She was hugging herself tightly and rocking slightly on the spot, her unfocused eyes fixed on some unfathomable spot on the floor. He could only hope that the injection he had to administer would help to regulate her hormones enough to manage her obvious anxiety.

He crouched down before her, trying to catch her gaze. "Bec."

"Rebecca," she corrected instinctively, her voice hollow.

"I'm sorry, but I need you to trust me."

"I don't like needles," she admitted softly. He didn't miss the way her hands tightened into claws where she protected her arms.

"I know," he responded. "But you need this. And we need to be quick because we still have to save Reinette."

Her gaze shot up to meet his. He waited, and after a long moment she forced her hands to let go and shakily extended her arm. Her saw a slight wince around her eyes as he inserted the needle into her vein, but she didn't react otherwise. He gently rubbed the spot after he removed the needle before standing and turning to Cathryn.

She looked back at him suddenly realizing it was her turn. She focused her gaze on Bec who was now left to roll down the sleeves of her dress, grimacing as the material brushed by the bruises on her arms and now felt tremendously weary.

"Cathryn," He started gently removing another prepared syringe, ready for any hostile reaction his granddaughter might give only to raise his eyebrows in surprise when she held out her arm freely for him to use. He gently took hold of her arm, briefly meeting her eyes. "I am so sorry." He used the physical contact point as a way to express his compassion for what they both had to endure. Cathryn only looked down as the needle went into her vein. She actually never minded needles as Bec apparently did. Her argument, she could only suppose, stood on the merit of principle, of informed consent rather than fear or pain.

"It doesn't matter," she muttered, looking at her feet as he finally relinquished her arm, feeling the Doctor's curious gaze alight upon her. His apologies didn't matter because he said them so many times, they lacked any true significance. It didn't matter because she couldn't put up a worthy opposition at this time and it would only cost her in the long run. She swallowed. "I just don't care." She remembered the sensation she had when she knew the pain was there but simply disregarded it. Clinging to that apathy, she stepped next to Bec. "Where is Reinette?" she posed, wanting the attention back on the courtesan and not on her.

"Come on," the old Time Lord said to his granddaughters. "We need to find the time window. Rose and Mickey are already looking."

Bec remembered what she'd seen on the episode: Rose speaking to Reinette when Mickey came in to tell her they'd found the time window.

 _"There isn't time," Rose had said when the courtesan had pressed for a more thorough explanation._

 _"There are five years," Reinette had reminded her sharply._

 _"For you. I haven't got five minutes."_

The Doctor was supposed to search for the time window straight after saving Mickey and Rose. Instead he had spent, who knew how long saving their lives. What if they'd slowed things down too much, what if Reinette had already been...

Bec swallowed and looked across at Cathryn. She'd tried so hard not to give away anything they knew from the show, or even that they knew anything from the show, but how could she keep quiet if it might cost Reinette her life. Her thoughts swam to the rule Lilly had from the ninth Doctor: no fortune telling, except to save a life.

She cleared her throat, drawing Cathryn's attention while trying to ignore the Doctor's sharp gaze. "We've lost so much time. Is there still time to _find_ the time window?" She emphasised the word, trying to subtly ask if they should tell him the window they needed was right by the TARDIS.

Cathryn bit her lip, looking at her friend, knowing what question she intended and inhaled quickly. Would it really matter in the long run if they confirmed the Doctor's likely suspicion? She had only wanted to prevent extreme methods he would take if he thought they were visionaries but….she could only wonder what other extreme methods he would take short of whether the 'Final Action' the ninth Doctor threatened Lilly with in Amber's story turned out to be real. _And that was when the Doctor had just gotten out of a war and thought Lilly was greedy to commit those crimes._ Of course, that explanation didn't suffice it for her when she initially read that scene but…. she had to reason only IF the Final Action was real, it was unlikely the Doctor would use it on them, given their situation. Still, she was glad that 'Pete's World' was very soon in coming.

But she agreed with Bec. They couldn't take the risk with Reinette's life and her timeline in this way.

"The room where the TARDIS is in," Cathryn finally spoke. "You have to smash through the bulkhead window."

"Smash through the window," the Doctor repeated, looking at his girls. He was scanning quickly.

"They blocked that window off," he interpreted quickly as the hurried through the corridor. "They knew we were coming." He looked back at his granddaughters. "We can't do it. Good thinking, though. Hyperplex this side. Glass the other. We would need a truck."

"Or a horse," Bec offered, looking disconcerted. "The horse would work."

"If we smash the glass, we smash the time window." The Doctor's eyes widened in sudden realisation at what his girls were saying. "There'd be no way back home."

 _Home._ Cathryn thought, feeling sarcasm mount inside her as the Doctor so quickly constituted the TARDIS for their home in replacement of the one they knew in their world. She took a deep breath, licking her lips, mouth dry finally meeting his gaze. "You asked us to trust you," she said. "This time, you need to trust us. If you want to close down the time windows and save Reinette's life, this is what you have to do."

She looked at Bec wearily hoping that she wouldn't come to regret this decision.

The Doctor nodded once as he studied his girls. He now had confirmation that not only did they have cognition of prior events, they were aware of their knowledge, even to the point of trying to hide it from him. Their training was becoming more and more imperative. A scrap of conversation briefly passed through his mind, when Cathryn had asked him what time sensitivity was. _'You mean seeing the future?'_ He should have paid more attention sooner, but he was old and thick.

He grinned at them disarmingly. "Well, let's go find Arthur," he turned and continued their ways down the passageway, before calling out over his shoulder something else Cathryn had said to him, back when he first met her. "Allons-y!"

Bec grinned at Cathryn's frustrated groan. She knew the other girl had a strong dislike for that deliberately incorrect French phrase.

They hadn't gotten much further due to Bec and Cathryn's slow pace, before they heard heavy footsteps running towards them. The Doctor raced ahead to meet whomever it was while the two girls caught up.

"Where's Rose? Did you find it?" they heard the Doctor ask rapidly.

"She was talking to the French girl. And yeah, but I couldn't work out how to get in," Mickey puffed.

"Where is it?" the Time Lord demanded.

"It's by the TARDIS. This giant window."

The Doctor briefly glanced at the approaching girls before giving his attention back to the young man before him. "And you're sure that's it?"

"Well, it's the only one where I could see people screaming. Where are you going?"

The Doctor was jogging backwards, still looking at Mickey and his girls. "Get them to the TARDIS, and you two wait for me," he instructed urgently. "Then get Rose. Get her back on the ship!" He turned and started running down the passageway, silently apologising for leaving Cathryn and Rebecca behind, but certain they would be safe until he got back, with the repair droids all currently occupied in eighteenth century France.

"Where are you going?" Mickey repeated in a shout.

"To find a horse!" the Doctor yelled back before he disappeared around a corner.

Mickey stared confused after the alien for a moment, before turning back to the girls behind him. They were slowly plodding towards him, leaning on each other for support. They both looked so weak and exhausted, and Mickey remembered with trepidation how close they had come to dying, and that was surely no more than twenty minutes ago, yet here they were, on their feet and moving under their own power.

"You two should rest," he said hurrying to them.

Bec shook her head. "We're alright," she lied. "But there's no time. You have to go get Rose before she gets trapped there."

"What? You mean that can happen?" the young man asked in concern. He hadn't even considered that there was a possibility that Rose might not be able to come back. He dithered on the spot, torn between saving Rose and not wanting to leave Bec and Cathryn. They were so weak, they would be defenseless if anything attacked them now. "What about you two?"

"Just give us directions back to the TARDIS," Cathryn instructed.

Mickey explained the route and started backing away as the Doctor had done. "Me and Rose'll be right back," he promised before taking off to save the other Londoner.

"I'm sorry," Bec murmured softly. They had given away so obviously that they knew events before they occurred, something she had been desperate to keep hidden, and then found out moments later that they hadn't needed to expose themselves. "I didn't know Mickey would find the time window." It had been her suggestion to tell the Doctor what they knew. As far as she could recall, the show never specified who found the time window. She had always assumed it was the Doctor, but now she knew she'd fallen into the same trap as others of underrating Mickey. She'd always thought Mickey was generally given a bad rap, and now she had treated him as less than he was as well.

"It wasn't your fault," Cathryn assured her. "You couldn't have known. And we couldn't risk not telling him. Reinette..." She considered the devastation that might be caused if Madam de Pompadour died five years earlier than history specified. All the artists she patronized. The buildings she would protect and plan. Notably among them was Place de la Concorde and the Petite Trianon. She also kept various people, artists, tradesmen, engravers and teachers in employment. Without her role in foreign affairs and her strategic mind, the King's power would not be assured. A feminist for her time, she had success in sustaining the French economy. "We couldn't take the risk that they might not find the window in time."

"They still might not," Bec added softly, hoping that the Doctor would save Reinette in time.

They were almost at the adjoining passage where they'd seen Mickey appear when he returned to them, Rose by his side.

"Here, let us help you," the kind shop girl offered, and she and Mickey supported each woman and aided their trip to the TARDIS.

At their arrival, they were greeted by the Doctor who seemed to emerge with the one white stallion initially they had found, as well as several pieces of medical equipment he was shoving in his overly large pockets. _'You have to trust us this time.'_ The words echoed in his mind.

His girls were leaning against the TARDIS, as Rose and Mickey watched the ballroom scene through the window on the bulkhead. When the Doctor exited the ship leading not just one horse as it appeared but two, all four looked at him in surprise.

"I thought there was just one horse," Bec said in confusion and the Doctor offered a conciliatory smile.

"It was meant to be a surprise. I thought each of you might like your own." The Time Lord's voice was hopeful that his gesture would be seen in the light it was.

Cathryn walked over to the brown and white spotted mare, which looked at her with soft dark eyes as she stroke her mane. "She's beautiful." She was still touching the horse, hoping the animal was as gentle as she appeared. "Yes, you are," Cathryn offered to the horse. "You're just gorgeous." The horse returned her gaze, but said nothing in response. At this point, Cathryn didn't expect an answer.

"You think you can ride her on your own while I take Bec?" the Doctor asked. It was Cathryn who proposed taking the horse on the TARDIS as a pet so he could only assume she had experience with riding horses in her original universe. He was capable of carrying three passengers if he had too and given Cathryn's condition, he wanted to allow her the option. However it would be so much safer if she was able to steer the horse through the short journey just through the mirror. If he had both his girls on Arthur and either were to fall… He frowned at the thought of another trauma on their already depleted bodies.

Cathryn took a deep breath. She had indeed ridden horses several times along the beach at Half Moon Bay for hours at a time. Surely she could summon the strength for this small feat despite her lackluster condition.

"Yes, I can manage it." She was grateful that the horse came bridled with reins at preparation. Riding bareback, as lovely as it sounded in a fantasy film was actually extremely difficult.

The next few moments were spent with the Doctor helping her up on the horse while assisting Bec to just behind him on Arthur, securely them both on their saddles respectively. He hadn't even started the horse moving yet, but Bec clung securely around his middle. In inextricably, she felt a calm rush through her, and she was able to relax enough to open her eyes and raise her head.

Cathryn and Bec looked around nervously, their eyes resting on Rose and Mickey. Cathryn wondered if she could just warn them that they weren't going to be deserted. That it would only be a matter of a few hours of waiting until their return.

The Doctor looked at her feeling her very palpable worry resonating strongly from her through the bond. "We'll come back as soon as we can." He paused. "Just in case, there's an emergency program in the TARDIS." He gazed at Rose for several moments. A lingering stare that seemed to convey more than words could properly encompass. "If something happens, she's set to take you home if anything goes wrong."

"Wrong?" Rose repeated. "Doctor, you're coming back, yeah?" She looked at him, her face set and stubborn. "We're not leavin' without you so don't you even think-"

"You just have to trust me Rose," he answered. "You know me. This is what I have to do."

The blond paused, taking a deep breath, looking at the Time Lord and his granddaughters. "That's right. I do," she said softly as she gazed at him. But she was determined. He would come back for her, no matter the barrier and she would persist in waiting. The Doctor had seen worst before than this. She simply needed to reinforce her trust that he knew what he was doing.

"Wait a second…." Mickey started. "What about-'

"On the count of three," the Doctor said to Cathryn, interrupting Mickey. Cathryn cast him an apologetic glance before looking at the Doctor. "One…two….and three!"

A gesture at the horse's side put both of them into motion, speeding them into a full gallop and the two girls held their breath, and Bec clung on tightly once more, as the glass crunch viciously crunched all around them, while they made their sudden and forceful impact into the time window. The horses skittered as Cathryn pulled on the reins, easing the horse into a mild canter while both riders observed the shocked crowds in the ballroom of the Palace of Versailles. Each one had taken a deep breath, Bec by instinct still clinging tightly to the Doctor amidst the sudden crowd of French nobility. She peripherally noted, though, that rather than arriving late as she feared, they had arrived moments earlier than in the show. Reinette still stood near the king of France, clockbots surrounding them, but they had not yet forced her to kneel.

The Doctor guided his horse to where Reinette was standing between two clockwork droids and managed to smile at her. "Madame de Pompadour, you look younger everyday."

"What the hell is going on!" demanded the man who looked affronted as both Bec and Cathryn, shakily dismounted the animals, feeling more at ease as their feet touched the ground.

Immediately, Reinette ran to the two girls, embracing them both tightly. "You both have faced down the monsters." She paused in concern. "They did not leave you unscathed." Her voice was filled with compassion and suddenly, tears came to Cathryn's eyes as she looked at her courtesan friend.

"No, they did not." She managed to choke down a sob.

Reinette offered the girls words of comfort and consolation, but now they just stared at her in surprised confusion.

"I'm sorry?" Bec asked timidly. She felt strange. She wasn't cold, but she felt like a warmth she was used to had disappeared. She hugged herself, trying to feel right once more.

Reinette spoke again, her accent thick, her concern for the girls evident.

Bec shook her head, not understanding a word. She glanced around the room, suddenly realising that even the whispers she could hear from the crowd sounded foreign to her. "Cathryn, I..."

Cathryn glanced back towards the mirror, but instead of seeing into the ship where Rose and Mickey waited, she saw the broken plaster and the bricks visible behind where the mirror had been attached. "The connection is broken," she murmured to her friend. "The TARDIS isn't translating anymore."

"Docteur!" Reinette called out, looking back at the Time Lord whom was speaking softly to the repair droids. At least Bec understood that word, but the stream of words that followed were gibberish to her ears.

The Doctor looked from Reinette to his girls. "With you in a tick!" he told them, before turning back to the clockbots and continuing to speak to them in a rich French accent.

"Something just feels wrong," Bec murmured.

"I know," Cathryn agreed, feeling the same obscure loss of warmth.

Bec watched the scene before her, trying to pick up on where they were, attempting to remember the dialogue from the episode she'd seen so long ago. The droid the Doctor was talking to slowly tipped its head forward and the clock inside stopped ticking. She knew one of the clockbots would fall and break, but, in turning her head to look for it, she turned her head away from the robot nearest her, and squealed in surprise with the rest of the crowd when it crashed down beside her.

The Doctor slowly walked towards them, first answering Reinette's question before turning to his girls. "Are you alright?" he asked them seriously.

"Yeah, just tired," Bec told him, even though something felt wrong. She couldn't put her finger on it, and she was sure it was just shock setting in after all that had happened.

He exchanged words with Reinette before addressing the two dimensional travellers again. "Come on. It's time you both had a rest."

He studied them both with concern. Ideally, he'd have taken them straight to the medbay on the TARDIS after their trauma, and kept them there until he was satisfied with their recovery. Instead, he had been forced to get them on their feet far too soon and to keep them moving. He'd surreptitiously checked their vitals at every opportunity, but he still worried about hypovolemic shock as a protracted part of the extreme blood loss they suffered.

He indeed did a rapid transfusion of an altered blood product but their blood pressure had still dropped as a result leading to hypotension.

 _Rest_ ,Cathryn thought. Words came slowly to her. Rest sounded so nice right now and she shivered in the torn dress she was wearing, listening to the muttered voices that seemed to surround them. She glanced at the horse she had been riding, before looking back to see the Doctor, Reinette and the King approach. To her surprise, the King smiled at her, bowing slightly.

"Est-ce vous j'ai eu l'honneur de danser avec le Yew Tree bal il y a tant d'années?" He asked in such a charming tone and briefly Cathryn just stared at him blankly. Her mind found some of the only French she knew.

"Je suis tres désolé. Je ne comprends pas." Her voice was a whisper. "My head…." She swallowed. "J'ai mal…." Cathryn's voice trailed off completely as her legs weakened and she found herself collapsing. The King who was closest, caught the girl around her waist, just in time, looking at Reinette with concern.

The courtesan only glanced with evident worry back at the Doctor who had just as swiftly prevented Bec's fall to the ground. The Versaille court gasped around them at the stranger's seeming predicament.

The young marquise and King immediately took charge now that the terror of the clockwork droids no longer posed a threat and called for their servants to take the girls into fitting guest rooms of the palace, while taking all measures to their care.

Reinette insisted that their rooms be in close proximity to hers so she could attend on them as their host. The Doctor hurried out of the ballroom to follow his granddaughters. He brought along portable equipment and it should suffice for their needs as long as he didn't have to cope with too many intrusions.

He first went to check in on Bec, who by the time she was rightfully composed, in a simple, thick embroidered nightgown, he was pleased that her pulse rate and blood pressure had increased slightly. _Fluids._ He thought. An IV might be out of place in 18th century France, although he deliberately had the equipment he required should an IV be required, so he gave her a shot while she was blissfully unaware of condensed fluids and electrolytes that would certainly improve her disposition once she awoke.

That discharged, he moved to the door to check in on Cathryn. Only to apparently run nearly headlong into the appointed court physician who appeared puffed up in importance at his task.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said, not very sorry at all. "I think you have the wrong rooms."

"Not at all," the physician countered him. "I'm appointed by the King himself to treat the young ladies whose welfare is of much concern for him. It seems they have taken quite ill upon their arrival at Versaille. The loss of wakefulness is alarming. I believe I should start bleeding Mademoiselle Rebecca at once. I've just begun on Mademoiselle Cathryn and-"

"You _what_?!"

"I have begun my treatment of one of the young ladies. Do not be alarmed. I think the first patient is to be better soon and-" The physician was interrupted as he was shoved forcefully out of the way as the Doctor spun on his heel to look at him fiercely. "You are not to lay a hand on either of my granddaughters. Do you understand, Monsieur?" His eye contact was direct with the darkening overtone's of the Oncoming Storm that for the moment it was all the physician could do to nod as the Doctor disappeared into his other granddaughter's room.

He raced to Cathryn's side to find what dark age method of treatment the imbecilic physician had administered. He found her unconscious with a small glass cup inverted on either arm directly over her bruises and the small puncture wound that extended down to her arteries. _The fool!_ Cupping would only exacerbate the injury and cause her to catastrophically bleed out. He shot to her side and quickly sonicked each glass cup. The method involved heating the glass and placing the sealed rim on the skin, then as the glass cooled, and the air inside, it would create a vacuum which would pull her flesh into the cup until her blood began to weep through her skin. It was like a high school science experiment where a boiled egg was sucked into a cooling flask, only using his granddaughter's skin instead of an egg. Luckily, the moron who thought himself a Doctor had only waited with Cathryn long enough that the vacuum of the cups fixed them in place on her arms, but hadn't caused her any harm.

His sonic on the right setting, he re-excited the air molecules in each cup, returning them to their vacuumless state and easing the pressure on her skin. As soon as it was safe to do so, he gently released the cups from each arm.

"You can't do that!" the little man protested.

"Try me!" the Doctor growled furiously as he slowly dragged his screwdriver over the newest injury, wishing for the dermal regenerator and other specialized equipment back on his ship, but at least he could perform rudimentary repairs to her blown blood vessels with what he had.

He groaned and rubbed his hand through his hair at the aborted disaster, considering what might have been had the cups done the job of tearing her arms open right down to the arteries underneath. After fighting so hard to save her, human stupidity was almost her undoing.

"I was appointed this charge by the king himself to see to the health of these very ill young ladies. If you continue to interfere with their treatment, I will take the matter directly to his highness."

The Doctor turned on the pompous little man, unveiling his wrath before him. "Good, tell him I want a word," he commented scathingly. "You will not come near my granddaughters again. You will not even enter their rooms. And if I hear you do, it will be the _last_ I hear of you. _Am I making myself clear?_ " Holding the man's gaze, he instilled a telepathic command as he spoke, protecting the children of his house.

The man quailed before the Time Lord, but as he slowly retreated as the command enforced itself, he got stuck on a concept he didn't quite follow. "Granddaughters?" he asked, glancing between the youthful ancient man and the woman sleeping unawares beside them.

" _Get out!_ " he ordered, and with a squeak, the man immediately obeyed, and the Doctor turned to attend to his granddaughter.

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Bec moved slowly from one darkness into another, the only difference being that she felt aware of the second darkness. She felt so heavy and weak and far too tired to even try opening her eyes to search for answers to the muddled questions running through her mind. She thought she heard a soft sigh, and her hand was moved gently, as though it was in the grasp of another. With considerable effort, she whispered out, "Cathryn?"

A cloth was gently run over her forehead while a heavily accented voice answered her, "She still sleeps." The voice sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn't quite place it.

Reinette sat by the bed as she had done for the last few hours, holding her dear friend's hand while she slept. She offered to stay with Bec while the Doctor watched over Cathryn, given the other woman's more dire situation. She turned towards the door slightly, intent on having a servant summon the Doctor from the room across the hall when the Time Lord himself slipped into the room. "She's awake," she told him softly.

"I know," he told her, a soft relief infusing his voice. "That's why I came."

He reached down and took Rebecca by her free hand. He saw her chest shudder slightly as she released a weak broken breath as the calm he was sending to her increased through their physical touch, but her eyes remained closed. "Bec," he called to her gently.

"Cathryn?" she asked in her whisper, afraid for the other girl.

"She'll be fine," he told her gently. "Had to makeshift a way to give her IV fluids and nutrients. You weren't so bad, but still you've slept going on eighteen hours. She'll wake up when she's ready."

"Rose?" she hoarsely whispered again.

He gently shushed her and held a cup up to her lips, helping her take a few sips. "Cathryn said… shouldn't drink water," she murmured weakly.

"This water's safe. Set up a little lab. Had to, to look after you two. Drink up." He helped her drink a little more, answering her question as she did. "Rose and Mickey are still at the TARDIS, but don't worry. As soon as you two are better, I'll find a way back to them."

Bec splashed a little of her water in surprise. "Windows?" she asked him.

He shook his head, even though her eyes were still closed. "Reinette and I talked about it, and she's has servants combing the palace. They've found a few broken mirrors and torn tapestries and one ripped curtain, but there are no active windows. We broke the connection with the ship when we came through. We can't get back."

"No," she whispered. She had thought from the show that Reinette had shown the Doctor the unbroken fireplace later the same evening on the show, but he'd said he'd spoken to Reinette already. Had she not moved the fireplace from her childhood home as she was supposed to? Or had the Doctor not been able to reestablish the connection with the ship? Maybe, with two horses and three people, the strain on the connection was too great. Maybe even the fireplace got broken when the connection snapped. They had changed things again, by their mere presence in a universe they should never have been in. Rose and Mickey were trapped in the fifty-first century while the Doctor was trapped in the eighteenth. How many events that were supposed to happen now wouldn't?

Bec reaffirmed to herself that this proved she and Cathryn needed to escape on Pete's world, needed to stop risking his future, needed to find a way home, but then her sluggish thoughts caught up with her. If they couldn't return to the TARDIS, they wouldn't go to Pete's world. They were trapped.

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 **Authors' note:**

 **Another chapter down for you to enjoy. Sorry it's a little late.**

 **A few nasty things in this chapter. Bloodletting by cupping was a real treatment, as described. In fact it is still used in places around the world. Not pretty. Consider yourselves either more learned or totally grossed out as we were, take your pick.**

 **Thanks again to our friends Almadynis Rayne, Fan Fictional Authoress, and LovelyAmber Light.**

 **See you next week! :-)**

 _ **azaadin & emptyvoices**_


	9. Family Picnic

**Chapter 9: Family Picnic**

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Cathryn and Bec had managed to elude the Doctor, escaping the Palace of Versailles to venture into the hidden depths of the garden maze that surrounded the fortress.

Oh, it was a lovely idea but truly they only garnered leave to stroll about outside with attendants not far behind. The idea of escape or being alone was a laughable one in the court especially if you were a woman. Both girls felt dismal at the situation they found themselves in and their prospects of their return had left them grief stricken.

"What will we do?" Bec asked as Cathryn absentmindedly picked a rose from one of the hedge mazes, rolling the stem back and forth between her finger and thumb. She winced. The thorn had penetrated skin and the minor cut started to bleed. Annoyed, she tossed the rose away, only to think of the plight of the real Rose waiting for them back in the 51st century. Did time move differently here than it did there now that the time windows had been closed? If they were truly trapped here, then Rose at some point would have to give up or potentially starve waiting for them to return. _And Mickey,_ Cathryn thought. What about Mickey? There was no love lost between the Doctor and Mickey Smith however, would Mickey be so inclined to wait with Rose if he did start to think the three of them would never return?

"I don't know," Cathryn managed numbly. Running away in the 18th century would prove far more calamitous than staying. They would have no means of surviving and women had no rights. Through Reinette's influence, which was considerable, the King gave them official recognition. No, he gave the Doctor official recognition and title in court where he was hailed for his bravery when the castle was under siege, saving the whole of the royal court. There were talks of land grants, a pension he would receive as income and a dowry for both girls offered should a suitable match be made for them.

Although, the latter issue of suitors had the Doctor cringing, wanting to defer any marriage contracts for the moment. He still promised he was searching for a way to get them back to the TARDIS. Cathryn never knew that she could miss an artificial intelligence but when the presence was cut off so abruptly, a feeling of warmth she hadn't known existed, immediately drained from her. Bec too seemed lackluster at the loss of the time machine whose presence she realised had also taken for granted. It was only an additional burden to add to Bec's despondency.

"I'm sorry." Cathryn could feel the pain so completely, that her heart felt as though it was being crushed. "We tried, you know. Looked at every fireplace we could find." It didn't help matters that so many of them appeared precisely identical but they wanted to be sure that there wasn't some mistake. That their presence might have only caused Reinette to forgo moving the fireplace from her childhood home to a room in Versaille. Cathryn was nearly desperate enough to ask. This certainly wasn't how it happened during the episode and given Bec's frightening explanation at what the court physician attempted to try as a remedy for her condition, she was willing to breach that level of decorum. She shuddered, only thankful she had been unconscious when the man first attempted to 'bleed' her. She had seen some horrible scenes in period films and television. Various doctors cutting into the poor patients backs to release the bad tempers the blood contained when they suffered the plague or sweat. Leaches being used for much the same reason. It made her queasy. The Doctor assured her he had arrived just in time but if incapacitated, did Bec and Cathryn want to risk a second gruesome attempt at this archaic medical procedure?

Bec simply collapsed on the stone bench, staring at the pond, decorated with flowers and lily pads, watching the water shoot up from various tubes in a network boasting its ornate display. It was much like the rest of the palace. A place to marvel at with detailed painting canvassing entire ceilings. Golden silverware. Her bedroom an artistic wonder that was larger than her entire bedroom and living room put together. Everything else, the simple things she had taken for granted in the 21st century was now almost a detail in humiliation. A stool chamber, which she could hardly tolerate just based on the smell. The lack of a faucet with running water at her demand. No showers for the first thing she wanted was to wash the filth off from the exertions of the previous day.

No. Both girls had to wait for water to be heated for a bathtub and since the French feared that water, especially hot water coming into contact with their skin would leave their pores open to germs, it was scandalous for a woman to want to bathe in hot water much less wash their hair. The Doctor and Reinette assisted although the courtesan had been wary at the explanation since her she had adapted to these customs for all her life. The one thing she stood her ground on was that both Bec and Cathryn bathe with their shifts on, to keep in tone with French modesty.

Neither one objected to this condition, since the idea of removing their clothes in front of the Doctor was an experience in humiliation that they wished to avoid. He had managed to contrive a cleansing agent for their hair that was closer to soap. Reinette had protested, explaining that shiny hair, caused by the oil from lack of bathing was a fashion statement. Neither of them wished to offend her since she had been such a gracious host but it had become obvious that her hair was infested with lice.

Cathryn had shuddered internally when Reinette explained that all she used to cleanse herself was cold water, very occasionally, fresh linen while using perfume and other fragrances to conceal any bad odours.

Between the two girls, they weren't certain how they would become accustomed to such disordered fashion trends. The King alone had stated he had only fully bathed on his wedding day and not a time since. Now, that the Doctor, while they had slept, enabled them telepathically to understand and communicate to the members of the court, they were able to function more readily once spoken too. Still, however he had managed to facilitate their minds to translate the French, Spanish and other languages spoken in their midst, it did not replace the sensation of the TARDIS. The words sounded odd despite the fact they heard them in English and Cathryn couldn't help but think that something fundamental was missing.

 _Who would have ever thought I might miss my prison?_ Cathryn sighed. Perhaps it was merely the fact that one prison cell was more optimal than the other.

Now, they were outside given that they longed for fresh air since being cooped up in a room, any room, no matter how beautiful it was, still acted as confinement. Both were trying their hand at needlework. Cathryn grimaced, looking at her progress, having relegated this task to arts and crafts, which never interested her before. If this was really what a woman considered entertainment, she felt herself likely to go mad.

She jabbed her needle through, poking the same thumb that had been abused by the rose. "I'm horrible at this," she exclaimed to Bec. "Sewing? I have never sewed!" She tossed the cross stitching work on the bench right next to her.

"If it makes you feel better, I'm having no more luck at this than you are." Bec's voice was cross. She stared at the partially clouded sky, hearing birds chirping in the distance. Otherwise, it was so quiet. No cars streaming by, the buzz of devices or computers. No televisions, iPods or laptops. Nothing to fill the long hours besides from changing from a day gown to one acceptable for her to walk outdoors in. Yes, that filled her hours. Four dress changes a day, all of which took an hour to complete. She never thought her ribs could feel this utterly sore from a corset that would give her no relief.

"I see you two have been in hiding." It was Reinette, coming towards them, a gentle smile on her lovely face as she greeted her two friends. She was only too relieved that they had recovered so completely from the horrendous attack they suffered at the hands of the monsters she was narrowly saved from and to have them all here, warmed her heart. Still, she couldn't help but see their abject misery at being trapped away from their own time and sought to find a means to bring them some good cheer. "I was speaking to the Doctor only moments ago and he agreed that today would be fitting for us to go on a picnic on the French countryside." She saw the looks of concern passing between the two. "There is no need to fear. I will be in attendance and the location isn't far. There is a lovely view I wish to show you of the Seine and we can all watch the sunset together." She smiled encouragingly at them. "And the Doctor attests he will ensure all liquids and food to be served will be safe for your consumption."

Cathryn glanced at her rejected sewing project before looking at Reinette. "The last picnic the Doctor wished to take us on didn't go so well."

Reinette stepped closer, managing to sit between the two girls, gently placing her hands on theirs. "But in that attempted venture, you didn't have me for company. I can assure you a far more pleasurable time."

"And I can promise you that there are no more clockwork droids left in this century." It was the Doctor's voice. "I have made certain of it and I know I still owe you both that picnic. We don't want to disappoint our hostess now, do we?"

Cathryn let out a muffled groan. If they couldn't leave this century, didn't stand a chance at getting to Pete's world, was there a point still in playing along with the Doctor's whims? She closed her eyes….but, she swallowed. She wanted to ask Reinette, what became of her fireplace and if it was still in her original home, could they chance to visit it. The picnic might provide that opportunity. If that was the case, then there would be a need to keep up some form of their previous act if only for the small chance of returning back home.

"I don't know. Maybe," Cathryn said finally. "I might like to find out what happened in between." She paused as Reinette glanced at her puzzled. "The years we weren't there. Perhaps you could tell us?" She glanced at Bec meaningfully. It wasn't very direct and just a little vague but she hoped her friend caught her meaning. In this conversation, she wanted to determine how their presence had impacted the nuances of Reinette's life versus what they saw on the show. Then, maybe by some fortune if God granted them an answer to prayer, they just might find a solution to this predicament they had voluntarily allowed themselves to be trapped in.

Bec wasn't certain what the other girl was up to, but the glance she sent her way warned her she was plotting something, and she trusted Cathryn to act in their favour, so she would try to play along until she could work out what her purpose was.

"Okay," she agreed, even though she wasn't certain she was up to having a day out. It would mean an extra change of clothes after all, and she was already struggling not to snap at the poor servants whose task it was to help her change. She had tried to befriend them, but the social status was apparently too big a gap for them to cross, as she couldn't convince the girls to treat her as they did each other.

"Weeell, I thought you could both use a day out, as it were, away from the royal court and its social conventions. A day to relax in the countryside. And it just so happens that I know exactly the place where we can get away for a while. Somewhere we can just be ourselves for a bit," he told them both invitingly. "I've taken the liberty of asking for our horses to be saddled, yours too, Reinette. Say, we head out in about an hour?" he suggested.

Bec grumbled to herself. She was right. Just enough time to change into their riding dresses. All the different dresses and the occasions they were to be worn for had been explained to her, but the whole business just seemed tedious to her. She was the sort of person to roll out of bed, throw on whatever clothes were handy for the day, simply adding a nice cardigan or coat if she was heading out for the night.

"So where are we going?" she asked half-heartedly.

"Reinette said," he answered, nodding towards the aristocrat. "Little estate by the Seine. Used to be one of the kings many holiday estates, until recently. Thought it would make for a good excuse to get out for a while."

"Come," Reinette smiled, offering Bec her arm. "If we are to arrive in suitable haste, we'd best begin our preparations."

Bec accepted her invitation, consoling herself that, if they only had to change now and didn't return until the evening that would be one less dressing room visit for them.

When the girls finally emerged again, they found not only their own horses prepared, but also two footmen and Reinette's maidservant standing in wait. The lack of privacy and independence in this time period was almost stifling. Cathryn rode the mare the Doctor had sourced on the ship (apparently he had tempted it onto the ship through a time window without crossing into France himself), while Bec rode behind the Doctor on Arthur once more, lacking the skill and confidence necessary to ride by herself.

The Doctor gave running commentary of the various sights they passed, elaborating on both the history and the future of the landmarks along their path, careful with his spoilers given the local presence in their party. Cathryn, with her knowledge of history was able to join in on the discussion, but Bec just sat silently absorbing the sights and sounds.

"Here we are," the Doctor announced as they rode down a long cobbled road that reminded Bec of a driveway.

"Didn't you say this was the king's holiday house?" Bec asked as a grand manor crept into view.

"It was, but he gifted it away with a barony. Cathryn? Rebecca? Welcome to our new home away from home!" He beamed as he flourished one arm expansively, gesturing to the house and land around them.

"What?" Bec exclaimed, glancing around in surprise. "He just gave you a house?"

"Bestowed," he corrected her. "Land and title. Estates and responsibility." His face twisted in distaste on his final word. "The staff were informed yesterday of the change in ownership. I sent word ahead to prepare a picnic for us, and then we can go exploring. If you'd like..."

Cathryn swallowed. Had he truly given up? Were all options exhausted? As she looked up at the three story, ivy covered estate, she felt the renewed ache of loss throb inside her chest and took a deep breath. She glanced at Bec who was examining their to be future home in trepidation, her grief already clear. The other girl was having a harder time of it than she was. Cathryn could only blink her eyes rapidly as she looked at the gardens imagining her niece playing amongst the bushes. Still, she wasn't separated from children or a husband. She could only imagine what Bec was feeling right now if her grief was any indicator acting as a measurement on its own.

By the time they entered through the iron gates and dismounted their horses with the help of footmen, the Doctor was being introduced by Reinette to the staff of servants, which he seemed to more readily take in stride. _Estates._ She thought. A woman wasn't specifically entitled to property. If she was lucky enough to outlive her husband, she might have more freedom while she ran her home. Saw to the education of her children. Whether she had children and if they survived the plague, sweat, typhus or tuberculosis. But then, her parents or the king could simply have it in mind for her to remarry.

It made her cringe and she took Bec's hand struggling to control the various amounts of dread she felt churning inside her. The Doctor glanced back at them with a concerned expression and Cathryn pressed her lips together, trying to compose herself. Obviously, he could see her terror plainly on her face, then how would she endure this? How would either of them have any hope of finding a way back, whatever slim chance it could be?

"Right," Cathryn said, hoping the tremor wasn't evident in her tone. Reinette was here and she certainly didn't wish to upset the woman to whom they both considered a friend. Likely Reinette's relationship with the King also acted in persuasion to their character. What if the King considered their sudden intrusion into Versaille a threat along with the clockwork droids? Their circumstances could be horrendously worse given the soldiers he had to command and then where would they go? It would be considerably longer trying to get to England and taking their chances with King George II. Considering that France and England were hostile towards one another, she wouldn't have liked their chances.

"It's beautiful," she managed when she saw Reinette glance their way. "Perhaps we'll go look inside." She looked at Bec, hoping it was a chance the two of them might be alone, at least for the moment.

"Any longer and the picnic would surely start to spoil," Reinette interceded, taking both their hands. "Your rooms aren't prepared yet nor has your wardrobe arrived." She gave them a smile, guiding them towards the back of the house. Their customs were entirely strange to her. Wouldn't they know by now they would need to change out of their riding clothes if they were to enter the house? "I would think you two would be famished already." It had after all been a long while since breakfast and strangely, they appeared to be sparse eaters. The French Marquise pondered these habits but knew eventually they would grow accustomed to the French style of dining especially with her strict tutelage.

Cathryn only sighed briefly as Bec cast her a tired glance, but both reluctantly following the courtesan's lead.

Reinette led them up to a small hill to a rug with a spread of fruits, cheeses, breads and wines. Bec grimaced slightly at the selection of drinks, but she remembered Cathryn's advice regarding the sanitation of the water. At the worst, there were large bunches of grapes that would help to quench her thirst without having to drink the wine. The three women were just beginning to seat themselves when the Doctor bounded up, Bec and Cathryn trying to mimic Reinette's grace amongst all the layers of skirt that encompassed them, as well as the restrictive corset. Their only consolation was that the riding corset allowed minutely more movement to them than the corsets they were to wear with their court dresses.

"Lovely," the Time Lord announced as he just shy of threw himself on the ground beside the picnic, lazing back as though he had not a care in the world. "So, what do you think?" he asked his girls, even as he already sensed their trepidation.

"It's nice," Bec answered honestly, but her voice still held a distinct lacklustre undertone. "Very grassy."

They rented a dingy little house back home, but the backyard was enormous. Most of the properties nearby has been subdivided, a second house built where there was enough room, or the house knocked down altogether and a duplex built in its place. Finding a place with so much yard space was a rare gem, but it did mean suffering a rundown house. She smiled bittersweetly, remembering her boys running barefoot over the grass. She would always, without fail, yell at them to put their shoes on. Her boys would have loved this grass.

"Yes," Cathryn muttered in agreement. "Grassy." She didn't hesitate but take one of the proffered glasses of wine that were so nicely laid out on the table, only to meet the Doctor's somewhat disapproving expression. She met his gaze briefly and shrugged. "What is it?" she challenged. It seemed hypocritical that he would take the so-called higher ground in this. After all, she remembered during the episode although had not witnessed him bragging about inventing the banana daiquiri centuries early at the French court. She knew given the events it was extremely likely that he too had indulged in the wine during the masquerade they both attended.

Reinette came to his rescue extending a plate to Cathryn, complete with chicken, cheese and fruit. "I think you'll find the flavor of the wine complements well with the cheese. At least I find it so."

Cathryn was forced to take the plate, briefly pausing to examine the cheese. It looked somewhat similar to Brie but….she frowned at the subtle color change.

"It's safe," the Doctor assured her. He had already done a discreet scan of the food items but could feel both Cathryn and Bec's evident concern. "It's Camembert. Similar to Brie. Quite nice too."

"Is the water safe too?" Bec asked. Now that the topic had been broached, she might as well address it. The weather was rather warm and as much as she nibbled on the grapes, she did long for water. In answer, he produced for her a glass bottle from the depths of his coat and Cathryn watched the exchange, wondering if this was to be their life. How would they survive the court when lengthier meals were a ritual? Perhaps, now that they had this home, court life could be avoided but…. nothing was ever quite that simple and when everything you had came from the King, she knew how swiftly it could also be taken.

"Maybe you could give us iodine to cleanse the water," Cathryn suggested. "When you can't do it for us in public. It would be more convenient."

"You know about iodine and purifying water?" the Doctor remarked in surprise. Cathryn hadn't displayed an inclination of any kind towards chemistry.

"Only what I read in 'The Hunger Games'," she answered. Oh, how she longed for her iPad with all her books on her Kindle application.

"What is this 'Hunger Games'?" Reinette asked in confusion. "There are people who use hunger as a form of competition?"

"Oh no, it's…" Bec paused. "They're just stories that are supposed to take place in the future when the leader of this country forces children to fight one another to the death for the entertainment of others."

"Oh my." Reinette could only shake her head. "That's dreadful. Was there not even a war to cause it?"

"It's a book," Cathryn said. "The story from Greek mythology of Theseus volunteering as a tribute to face the minotaur in the labyrinth. These are simply retellings of that tale." She saw the Doctor examine them. Did the 'Hunger Games' even exist in this universe? She had never thought to check but then, what difference would it make? "It's just what you said before about 'Stargate'. Just rubbish, isn't it?" Perhaps it was but it was a provocative plotline with some handy survival skills embedded in the story.

"Stargate," Reinette repeated. She knew the Doctor had travelled the stars and she pondered the word in reflection. "Is that a means of how you journeyed through time? This stargate?" She gazed back at the Doctor who was frowning at both his girls.

"No, no, not quite. I have a ship. Better or I should say safer than a stargate or just travelling unprotected in an artificial wormhole," he mused before looking at his granddaughter. "Bec, you said you saw this on the telly?" His interest was suddenly peaked. "Want to tell me a little more about it?"

Bec pressed her lips together nervously. She was a bit nervous about sharing her favourite TV show from her teenage years, but pleased for the opportunity as well. She just hoped he and Cathryn didn't think it was just a silly show. She plucked another grape, fiddling with it absentmindedly as she spoke.

"Well," she began, dragging out the word in the same manner as the Time Lord. He grinned ruefully at her mimicking his speech patterns. "The Stargate was this huge ring, big enough for people to walk through, bigger even. It was found buried in Egypt. The story goes that the Egyptian gods were aliens, parasites. They used the Stargate, and spaceships, to come to and conquer the earth. But the Gate got buried and the aliens left.

"Eventually, after it was found, it came into the possession of the US military. This expert archeologist, Daniel Jackson, translated the writing around the Gate, and they got it working. After a while, they had teams that went through and explored other planets, meeting new people and races, making new enemies. The team the show was about, SG1, it was always they who, at the last moment, saved the earth from total destruction."

"What about the Stargate itself," the Doctor asked casually. "Where did it come from?"

"Oh, this other race made them, the Ancients. It was made of this special rock, this superconducting mineral or something. I don't really remember its properties, but it was called Naquadah. It was covered in these rune like things, I think they called them chevrons, but were actually constellations. You needed six chevrons to specify your destination, like the sides of a cube, then one for your point of origin. There were Gates on planets throughout the galaxy, at least three or four galaxies anyway. The Stargates connected to each other with a wormhole so you could travel between them, but you could only travel in one direction. I don't know if that's true of real wormholes or not, or if that was just from the show, the effect of the event horizon the Gates created or something," she commented, thinking about the episode _The Planet of the Dead_ where the Doctor and others travelled in a bus through a wormhole in the opposite direction from where the wormhole was being created.

She paused, noticing the Doctor's disquiet, seeing his almost sour expression. "It was just a show," she qualified hurriedly. "It was a bit of fun. I watched it as a teenager. I mean, given some of the things that happened on the show, the mess of time travel and stuff, it could never have happened."

"What mess?"

Bec shot a look to Cathryn, feeling more and more uncomfortable by his mood. Maybe she was right initially, that it was one of those TV shows that he would comment on disparagingly while insulting humans. So she tried to dig herself out of her hole by appealing to his Time Lordiness, pointing out some of the problems she had with the shows use of time travel.

"Well, there was one episode that was fine, ish. There was a solar flare at the same moment they opened the Gate and the team ended up in 1969. It ended up being an ontological paradox where they caused the Gate program to be started before finding their way back to their own time again. Before they left, their CO had given them a note with a list of times written down when the sun would flare in 1969, because they briefly met him in the past. But there were other times when they created new timelines and cancelled others out or had time loops or bubbles where time was locked or slowed, but, they explained the science in show, but technically they should have destroyed the universe..." She trailed off uncomfortably, looking down at the grape in her hand, warm now from where she'd been rolling it between her fingers.

"Anyways," she muttered, feeling like she was in trouble. "It was just a show, a story. Did you ever see it, Cathryn?" she asked, nervously trying to take the focus off herself.

"It sounds a little familiar, but no, I don't think so," she answered. The team and the time travel sounded totally foreign to her, but Bec's description of the Stargate vaguely rang a bell. However, she couldn't quite catch hold of the elusive memory.

The Doctor, though, was becoming increasingly concerned by Bec's story. To have to care for his granddaughters when they innately displayed such knowledge and awareness... and without his TARDIS...

After he had ended the Time War, he had hidden for a number of years in his ship, just floating aimlessly through the vortex before he could bring himself to face a reality where his race no longer existed, and at his own hand. But when he had returned to real time and space, the universe assaulted him with possibilities, timelines that would have irrevocably destroyed the universe had they been allowed to come to pass, possibilities that had once been negated by the presence of the Time Lords. Now, his was the burden to protect and uphold the laws of time, and he had spent years preventing every destructive timeline before they had even begun. It was his responsibility. Did Bec realise her description corresponded so closely with one of the possibilities he had aborted? Except, if he was correct, she seemed to be aware of far more of that timeline than even he was, if she could describe the violations he sought to prevent. He could merely sense they would happen. She knew far more detail.

 _'Stories. TV shows,'_ they had said. Was this how they perceived time?

Meanwhile, Cathryn was thinking and apparently since Bec was being placed under such scrutiny for her entertainment choices, she needed a little assistance. _Stargate._ She thought. _Egypt. Wormhole. Aliens pretending to be Egyptian gods. The military and…._ a flash of insight occurred to her.

"James Spader," she said finally as Bec glanced at her in confusion.

"He was an actor in the movie, wasn't he? Stargate? He could read the hieroglyphs and talk to the people there. The aliens." She thought quickly. "Did the alien's eyes sort of glow?"

"Yes." Bec felt a sensation of relief. "When the parasite took over the host, their eyes glowed. So you did see it."

"Well, I think I just saw the movie. Not the show. But the humans killed the alien in that show with a nuclear weapon…" Cathryn told her in confusion. "They said he was one of the last of his kind."

"Maybe he thought so, or wanted everyone else to think so," Bec considered. "But he wasn't. Many more where they came from. Used a sarcophagus to heal themselves, bring others back from the dead."

"Oh, like the Osirians," Cathryn considered.

"In what way?" the Doctor asked.

She frowned at him. "Really? You dragged everyone to the Louvre to look at a Sarcophagus that was keeping some mummy robot alive as well as the Osirian who parasitically attempted to invade our own minds. This show, silly as it is, seems like it has similar themes. Like a possible time line that was prevented or…."

The Doctor was now staring at her and that gaze alone made her nervous. Her stomach clenched and she licked her lips. "Or it's just a silly show. Like the 'Hunger Games'. So many silly shows out there, it's hard to keep track."

"Is there?" The Time Lord exhaled slowly examining both his granddaughters wondering how acutely aware they were of different timelines in this fashion. Without his equipment in his medbay, studying the progress of their organs transitioning as well as their brains developing the more intricate psionic pathways, it made him exceptionally nervous. Perhaps, he would dedicate a few rooms of the house as his laboratory and new medical bay. It would be rather rudimentary but far more advanced than what any of these humans had. Over time, he would regain the instruments he needed to monitor his granddaughters in a more precise degree.

"I met a race once, a long time ago, for them and for me," he commented, his voice sounding almost wistful. "Called the Alterans. They were very advanced for their time. They were building a method of travel, of transportation, that sounds similar to your Stargate. But I could sense the danger to time if they built it and seeded it through the galaxies as they planned. It took a while, I had to go back more than once, but I eventually 'convinced' them to set their project aside and find other projects to focus on. That race was a real bother. Too advanced for their own good. The Time Lords, when they had been around, hadn't even let them evolve in the first place. It took me a few years of jumping around their centuries to prevent them from creating the paradoxes you mentioned. And, yes, they would have torn the universe apart."

Bec's heart was racing as she listened to him, fighting the urge to run or cry or both. She recognised the name he mentioned, the Alterans. That had been the name given in the show for the Ancients, she simply hadn't been able to remember it in giving her description. _No_ , she whispered to herself. _He's lying. I don't know how, but he's lying._ "It's just a show," she defended sullenly, bottling down her fear.

"Are you sure?" he asked, raising his eyebrow at her, but she wouldn't look at him. He knew he needed to be patient with them, but he also needed to understand their abilities as completely as possible for him to best protect them and the universe. Once more he hoped for the day their physical transition was completed so their proper instruction as Time Lord youths could begin.

"Yes but maybe…" Cathryn shook her head, glancing at Reinette who seemed confused at the direction the conversation was having. "Perhaps we should discuss this later given our present company." She looked at the courtesan. "I'm sorry Reinette. Our talking about television shows, while you're here. That is rather rude of us."

"Not at all." Reinette gave her a soft smile. "I find it rather fascinating. The entertainments you both enjoyed. I for one can only say that I enjoyed decorating, love music, art and the occasional theatre visit." She lowered her eyes. "Of course, the King's chaplain and I disagree that theatre undermines the Church. So far, I have prevailed on this matter."

"Perhaps you can take us to the theatre?" Cathryn asked, trying to muster some encouragement. "If you enjoy it, I'm sure we will."

"Thank you, my friend for your support." Reinette nodded. "I, of course, knew I would have it." She glanced at the Doctor. "And might it prove an olive branch to bring your family closer together in the bond between your minds that is already forming." Reinette didn't see the Doctor's alarm as the courtesan mentioned the natural bond that was just in its early stages. "I am told that even in this early stage, you three are able to experience one another's strong emotions. Surely, this will provide insight while you grow as a family."

Cathryn could only look at Reinette, feeling stricken. A buzzing sound filled her ears. She heard the words and she struggled to process them. Bond. A natural Bond. It was growing. The Doctor had facilitated a Bond between himself with both the girls without even asking them. There wasn't so much of a word. He just implemented it and….she thought of the Louvre and the psychic attack Cathryn and Bec both experienced. Was that when it occurred? Or was it even more maligned in purpose? Was it a result of those needles forced upon them each day?

"A Bond," she started. "You started a family bond." She glanced at Bec who appeared just as shocked. "At what point were you going to tell us?" She thought of when Sara found out in ' _Lost in Reality_ '. That too was at the hands of another. The Master was the one to deliver that shocking news and Sara had been furious. Cathryn swallowed. "Wait, I think I know this. You didn't think you would get permission, so you forced your way into the core of our minds to set this up. Two for the price of one? Adopted us that way, right?"

 _How did she know about telepathic adoption?_ He looked at Cathryn and back at Bec. Both had stopped eating at the sudden revelation of this news. Running his hands through his hair, he struggled to explain.

"I didn't adopt you," the Time Lord said finally. "No need for adoption when there is already a blood claim and you are of my own house. The natural bond started to form upon your arrival to this reality. When I recognised you as my kin." He blew out a breath. "It's called entrelacement. The telepathic recognition that develops between family members and the connection starts to grow. It will take time," he assured them. "I promise, you'll start to adapt and-"

"And then what?" Cathryn challenged. "Do our conversations stop becoming private because you can always listen in?" She was thinking of the marriage bond between Rose and the tenth Doctor. Perhaps in this reality, a family bond worked in a similar way to a marriage bond so that their privacy, the sacred need to be alone with her own thoughts would simply vanish.

"It does not happen that way." His voice was firm but he was astonished. How did Cathryn know about bonding to such an extensive level? Maybe her facts were a little skewed in confusing a marriage bond with a family bond but….this was serious. From their expressions, they seemed to have a steady awareness of what a bond meant and how it could be used. He swallowed, placed his chin in his hands. "You both seem to know a bit about bonding, don't you?" Even if Cathryn was doing most of the talking, he could feel Bec's strong recognition of the matter as well as see it on her face.

Cathryn and Bec shared an uneasy glance and the Time Lord shook his head.

"Oh no, hard to deny it now. But your developing ancestral knowledge. Can be a little confusing unless…." He paused, sensing their shifting emotions. "It's something else." He leaned forward. "So, where did you learn about bondings? Was it on the telly?" He looked over at Bec who merely closed her eyes, her discarded grape, dropped on her lap as she rubbed her forehead. "Was it a story?" The Doctor's voice was insistent.

"No, I'm not doing this anymore," Bec answered, her raised voice containing both panic and anger. "Yes, it's a story, it's all just a story. All of it! The whole thing! And I know what you're thinking," she accused, pointing at him, "but it's not our story. Someone else came up with the Doctor who stole a TARDIS and ran away. People have been writing about you since you first kidnapped Barbara and Ian. And look! Still on the kidnapping theme here!" She gestured between herself and Cathryn. "You're just a _story_. You're not our story. You're someone else's. Go kidnap them and tell them they're time sensitive or precognitive or whatever you want. Just stay out of my head!"

"Bec," he said gently, aware as he was that her overriding emotion was fear rather than anger.

"Rebecca," she corrected spitefully. "Can you stop it?" she asked, her voice almost begging. "The Bond, can you stop it?"

He looked at her speculatively, before slowly and gently answering, "No." He decided against saying he wouldn't even if he could.

She tried to remember everything she'd read about... what were they called? Puerile Bonds. She remembered when Sara and Lilly ran away in ' _Lost in Reality_ ', how Sara hid in a shopping centre, but Ten could point out her location to Nine without even looking. Would that happen to them? Would they even be able to escape him on Pete's world? Except, when Sara was far enough away, he couldn't sense her anymore. Would they be able to get that far away quickly enough? They'd have to make sure he was totally distracted and unable to follow them when they ran, that meant just running off when Rose and Mickey did might not be enough. But maybe if they slipped out of the mansion just before the Cybermen attacked...

Cathryn took a deep breath, seeing Bec's panic and fear at this encroaching situation. Her mind tried to process what Amber and herself had written more than a year ago. But it was maddening. Now they had to consider a form of telepathic control that wasn't even part of the show.

"I'm someone else's story." The Doctor was repeating one of Bec's statements she had made in their defense. He pondered whether this meant more of his children survived and had thrived or were thriving in the dimension his girls had originated from. Or it was more likely an obstructed view of their ancestral memory in a way their developing minds could understand it. Through story telling or similar methods. Once their bodies had fully transitioned, they would be less prone to this confusion but during this stage, well, as Rose only recently reminded him, he needed to be patient. "Whose story am I, then?"

Cathryn looked at Bec, able to tell her temper as well as feeling her own. But what good would it do them here? For all they knew, they could be trapped in this timeframe for the rest of their lives. If they found a way back to the spaceship and if they got to Pete's World…

 _A whole lot of if's._ She clenched her hands together, angry about this revelation but from what she knew about the puerile bond, from what she and Amber had written, it was implacable. _But,_ she thought, _he said ours was developing. It's not that strong._ Sara, even when she didn't know it, could hear some of the Doctor's thoughts projected to her. She could sense his emotions. It was a strong connection. Aside from the time the Doctor had physical contact with them, Cathryn didn't have that same sensation. So, whatever it was, it was new. If it was stronger, he would be able to send telepathic emotions without the need for a touch. She recalled the moment when Nine had managed to capture Sara while Ten materialized the TARDIS around her. He had sent calming sensations into her mind without laying hands on her directly.

"Is that really what you want to know?" Cathryn averted the question. "But then, people are writing stories about you here, aren't they? On the internet, there were even photos…." She thought about the Black Archive and Queen Elizabeth I. "Paintings of you, even." She was careful not to be specific. He hadn't met Elizabeth I yet and now, she couldn't be certain if he would. But he had to be aware of the photos taken of him during the Kennedy assassination and the sinking of the Titanic. "People here will always tell stories. They can't help themselves." She briefly reflected on 'A Journal of Impossible Things' written by the great granddaughter of Joan Redfern whom encountered the Family of Blood in 1913.

The Doctor sighed. Cathryn was attempting to evade the subject and Rebecca was already looking at him spitefully. "Of course humans will tell stories," he relented. "Sometimes, they're even about me. Buuuut, from where did you find those details about family bondings?" He paused. "Another story about me, then? Something online?"

Cathryn pressed her lips together, glancing at Bec before coming to a decision. "Yes. Something online. There was a story about a girl named Sara." She wasn't going to bring up Lilly's name. Enough risk was being taken by telling this hypothetically. "It was an accident of sorts but she ended up in a telepathic bond with a Time Lord."

The weight of the Doctor's eyes was upon her and Cathryn felt her own heart pound inside her chest. It was then that Reinette placed her hand gently on Cathryn's arm. "How mysterious," the courtesan said. "That the two should form a connection though it not being intentional." She paused to look at the Doctor. "Does it not seem similar to our own story?" Reinette proposed. "But surely since you have travelled in and out of time so readily, other bonds were formed and connections made without preparation. A story like this is not wholly unique." She glanced at Cathryn. "Did it end favorably?"

"I suppose." Cathryn managed, thinking on both Sara and Lilly until the Time Lord in question looked at her.

"You suppose?"

"I mean, yes," she grinded out. "Much was left to the imagination for the future. But it was still just a story." She shook her head. "Was supposed to be a story." How often would that phrase come back to haunt her. _'Truth is stranger than fiction.'_

"Perhaps someday you could venture to tell me more of your tales," Reinette suggested. "I would take interest in hearing them."

"Perhaps," Cathryn said hollowly. She put down her plate. Whatever vestiges of an appetite she did have, had since left her.

Reinette moved closer to Cathryn, taking the girls hand in her own. She hoped her news might brighten the other's spirits considering the turn their discourse had just taken. "I know considering the degree of your change of circumstances, your new environment must be of some surprise," Reinette started. "But there has been an offer made and considering the esteem for which I place in the man extending the honor, I think of no one better deserving than you."

Cathryn was nibbling on an apple before looking at the courtesan with concern. "Reinette, I do appreciate all that you have done on our behalf. It is far more than our deserving." She was careful in how she worded the phrase.

"Your deserving?" The courtesan's eyes twinkled merrily. "By all means, you seemed to have accomplished this task quite on your own." She took her hand and squeezed it. "But unlike others in my position, I know I will never have to concern myself over jealousy being the friendship we both share." Her smile widened. "On the contrary, I am overjoyed at your good fortune and wish you well."

"Wish me well?" Cathryn asked. She was thinking hard. "Reinette…." She paused, remembering the courtesan's rank. "My Lady, you have already done us such great services. We hardly deserve anymore at your hands. If you are thinking of a marriage, I don't feel prepared to…"

"There is no need to worry about a marriage Cathryn." Reinette consoled her. "The King has requested your presence back at court. You will be given great chambers as befitting your rank and be well cared for." She paused. "In turn, I suspect, your own family will rise in esteem, titles and wealth for your service that you offer at Versaille." She frowned, seeing that Cathryn's face had grown frightfully pale. "There is no need to worry. I will be at your side, teaching you everything you are required to know. And since I already know you to be a true friend, there will never be a need for us to compete."

"Compete," Cathryn echoed hollowly.

"The King has decided to honor you with a position as one of his mistresses. There is only a minor few at court with me as the head courtesan but both the King and I discussed this. How he has set his sights on you those years ago at the masquerade and I agreed you to be an honorable lady to serve as his companion." She noticed the expression of disquiet on Cathryn's face. She squeezed her hand. "The King is a very gentle and considerable companion. He will extend to you anything you might wish or need."

Tears prickled in her eyes. She felt her blood start to freeze. "Reinette," Cathryn started. "My faith….our faith, is so important to me." Her voice was soft. "Might I consider living in convent? It's just that…" She swallowed. "The most intimate act between a man and a woman, I would save for marriage. If I became married."

"This is France, not England, Cathryn," Reinette tried to remind her. She was struggling to tell her what an honor it was that the King selected Cathryn. How he was drawn to her at the masquerade ball. The King's right to choose a mistress, more than one if it pleased him, came by divine right of God, agreed upon by the Pope. "Surely you can't mean for the King to annul his marriage to the Queen to marry you?" A chiding note had entered the courtesan's tone.

"No, I promise you, I'm not," Cathryn said. "I just want to live quietly and…." Tears slipped down her cheeks. "I've really had no luck with men. Two forced me to….." She paused, taking a deep breath. "I'm afraid. Please, Reinette. I don't think this position is suited for me."

"I will be right there to help you," Reinette assured her. "So that you can be reminded you have nothing to fear."

Immediately, feeling hopeless, she allowed Bec to put an arm around her in support. "I can't let this happen," She whispered to Bec. "I would rather die."

"We won't let it happen," Bec promised. "Did the King talk to you about this?" she asked. Maybe there were vital clues they both had missed.

Cathryn frowned. "Not a word," she answered.

"No," the Doctor spoke up. "He wouldn't." But he was thinking of Cathryn's words. How she would rather die than become the mistress to the King. It concerned him. She said she was forced. _Forced to do what?_

"How do you mean?" questioned Bec.

"What the King wants, the King gets," stated the Doctor, his voice taking a serious tone.

"And... and you're okay with this?" asked Cathryn, her lip starting to tremble. "You think..."

"Hold your tongue," ordered the Time Lord in a low voice. He would address the matter with them in private. Neither Reinette nor the servants would understand their reticence because of the cultural differences between them, and he didn't want to risk word getting back to the king that he had no intention of acceding to the man's demands.

Cathryn clenched her teeth together. Would the Doctor do that? Would he hand her over to the King to be used? Would he support the idea of her being forced to be the King's mistress? What would happen if she declined? What would happen if she said no? Did she even have a choice? _Choice. I could say no, at worst be executed. At best, all the positions that were bestowed would be taken away._

Bec jumped to her feet quickly. Which was amazing considering the cumbersome clothes she'd been forced to wear. The 21st century woman was preparing to give the Doctor a piece of her mind on Cathryn's behalf when she was stopped short by a voice.

"Good morrow," stated the King. He'd come through the trees on his horse with several others from court, and managed the get close enough to the picnic without being noticed by the girls. He dismounted.

Of course they'd have to greet him properly. Whatever that means. They curtseyed, ducking their heads down. Cathryn couldn't even stand to look at him so this was the best option.

"Have you told them the good news?" asked the monarch.

"Yes, my lord," answered Reinette.

"Excellent." The King smiled like he'd just bestowed one of his greatest gifts upon the Doctor and fully expected to be honored for his generosity. "I have more good news for you, my friend."

"More good news, your Highness?" the Doctor carefully kept his voice jovial. _I don't know if I can take any more good news_ , he thought to himself. The Time Lord had never been one to play at pleasing aliens before. But he was well versed in playing the political game. He'd grown up on Gallifrey after all. And the Doctor was well aware he couldn't just run off like he usually did when things got too domestic without his TARDIS. So he smiled, and gave the human monarch the honor he expected.

"I've given my consent for you to take the hand of your lovely Rebecca in holy matrimony."

"What?!" Bec voiced her shock.

The King's smile widened even more, if that was possible. "After the papal dispensation has been approved considering your affinity as her Uncle. I do not expect a lengthy wait. May your wife bare you many sons, Doctor."

"Thank you, your highness," responded the Gallifreyan.

"Doctor, did you ask the king if you could marry me?" She swallowed but recognised only by scarce discernment that the Doctor had altered the language of which she spoke so it wasn't recognisable to the King or Reinette. It had a musical structure of which sounded familiar to her. "Did you happen to forget that I am already married? I am _not_ marrying you!" She was angry. Bec didn't even want to include that if the Doctor was right regarding their relationship, it would be a horrific form of incest. _No._ She thought. _I can't do this._

The Doctor could feel Bec's shock coming through the bond. He could feel the anger she'd been about to unleash over Cathryn being expected to serve as one of the king's mistresses. And he could sense the dread building in her gut. A tidal wave of emotions was about to break on him.

The Doctor gave his granddaughter a grin, and spoke in an alien language that sounded like poetry as it dripped off his tongue. "If you've ever trusted me in anything ever, trust me in this, Rebecca. Smile and accept the offer, or _hold your tongue_." He paused. "Please," he added.

It was the "please" that caught her attention. And it was the "please" that kept Bec silent. _There's no way I would EVER marry the Doctor,_ she thought to herself. _Not even if he was the last man on Earth._ Bec stopped the thought short, realizing as far as the Doctor was concerned, he believed she and Cathryn were the only two women on Earth. Well, maybe not just Earth.

Did he really want to marry her? What about Rose? Did she really mean so little to him? She was only human. And she was more than two centuries away. The Time Lord could easily outlive four or five wives before meeting back up with Rose. She'd never even have to know. Bec swallowed. Was the Doctor going to marry her?

"I've spoken with my treasury. Her dowry will be taken care of," the King interrupted Bec's thoughts.

The two dimensional travellers shared a look. They needed to get out of here. They needed to get away before they both experienced what it truly meant to be women in the 18th century. And they needed to do it as fast as possible.

"What are we going to do?" asked Bec after the King left.

"We're going to get married," answered the Time Lord.

A look of horror crossed Bec's face. She started to shake her head.

"At least then you won't be forced to be someone's mistress," added the Doctor. He spoke in the alien language again so Reinette wouldn't understand. It only sounded like love song to humans who didn't have an alien translation moving through their minds. The Doctor knew Reinette was an extremely intelligent woman. And given the right instruction he had no doubt she would understand things from his point of view. But he wasn't naïve enough to expect her to discount her culture and upbringing just because he and his grandchildren said so. So, the Doctor hid his private conversation from her.

"I promise I'll protect you, Rebecca," he added in French.

"And what about Cathryn?" she asked, still unsure of the Doctor's true intentions.

"The King will provide for her," answered Reinette. "He is most generous."

The Doctor only nodded. He had to think of something. He had to get his family out of there. He glanced at Cathryn, taking in the terror showing on her face. It was nothing next to the turmoil coming through the bond. And what were these attacks Cathryn spoke of? But before he could ask her, he knew he had to do make a plan. But for the life of him he was having difficulty figuring out what course to take. As long as they were stuck in this century, they were subject to the king. And as much as he wanted to fight against it, he knew there were far worse fates than that of being the King's mistress.

Was this how regular people lived? Was this the slow path he'd often been jealous of? It was worse than he'd ever imagined, far worse than beans on toast. The empty part of his mind ached for his time ship. He ached for his TARDIS.

"Reinette," started Cathryn in desperation, "Whatever happened to that lovely fireplace you had in your bedroom in your childhood home?" She couldn't let this happen. Not again. It was degrading and… a lump formed in her throat. She would indeed risk running away rather than being used like a piece of property by a man who simply felt entitled to her by divine right.

"Is it still there?" added Bec.

The Doctor instantly perked up. Was it possible? Could one of the time windows have survived? No. He let his enthusiasm die. He knew every time window would have been destroyed. His granddaughters were grasping at straws.

"Oh." Reinette was surprised. "I had it moved," she explained.

"Moved?" The Doctor's face lit up.

"Why yes." She looked back and forth between the Doctor and his family, curious as to why they seemed so interested. "It's in my private quarters in my boudoir in the west wing."

"Did you show it to the Doctor already?" Cathryn cringed when she realized she may have let slip she knew Reinette's future actions.

"That would be inappropriate," answered the courtesan. "No man may enter a woman's boudoir," she explained. "Not even the King has entered mine."

Understanding flashed through both Bec and Cathryn. If what had happened on the show had happened in real life, Reinette had been propositioning the Doctor. Perhaps it was because the girls had been sick. Or maybe it was because Reinette hadn't been able to sneak the Time Lord away when all the servants were busy with the aftermath of the attack. Whatever the reason, Reinette hadn't shown the Doctor her very private boudoir. She hadn't shown him the fireplace. Which meant they still might be able to get back home. Home? Well... Back to the TARDIS, and then on to Pete's world.

The Doctor jumped to his feet. He felt his granddaughter's relief. He felt their excitement. And he was proud of them for exploring their idea, for not giving up.

"C'mon," he said excitedly. "We've got to go before Rose activates emergency program one."

Cathryn was instantly to her feet.

"I don't understand," stated the courtesan as she allowed the Doctor to help her stand up. "Where are we going?"

"To your boudoir," answered the Doctor.

"I think not!" Reinette looked affronted. She glanced around at the nearby servants, well aware they had heard the Doctor's statement.

"Reinette," started the Doctor. "That fireplace, the one in your boudoir, wasn't connected to the system when we came through the portal. There's a chance, a very small chance, that it's undamaged. We could use it to get home."

"Home?" Reinette instantly looked crushed just like she had when the Doctor left her on the show. "But you have so much here," she objected. "You have lands and title. You're engaged to be married. One of your family is to be one of the King's mistresses. You can't leave." She shook her head in disbelief. The King would not be pleased.

"It's... It's just for a visit, Reinette," the Doctor lied. He couldn't risk being denied access to that fireplace. Or worse, he couldn't risk the King having it destroyed.

"Just a visit?" she questioned.

"We left Rose and Mickey there alone," Cathryn spoke up. "We need to make sure they're alright," she told a half truth.

"There are monsters far worse that clockwork droids out there," added Bec for good measure.

Reinette hesitated. No one could tell if it was because she was afraid for Rose and Mickey, or because she didn't want them to leave.

"Come with us," added the Time Lord. "You can pick any star in the heavens, and I'll take you there."

Reinette looked up with sudden hope.

"Come with me," the Doctor repeated his offer.

Reinette nodded. She smiled. She was going to see the stars.

"You there," she pointed to the nearest servant. "Run to the west wing. See that my boudoir and all adjoining rooms are opened as though they are being repaired. Have my guard stationed there and inform the King." If the whole castle was going to know about her letting the Doctor into her private rooms, she was going to do it right. She couldn't risk losing her standing. "Run!" she ordered.

The Doctor smiled. He loved that word.

Cathryn and Bec shared a look. They knew Reinette wasn't supposed to travel with the Doctor. They knew if she came, they'd be changing his time line. It was one more thing to worry about. It was one more reason why they needed to get to Pete's world. They had to get away from the Time Lord before their interference destroyed him, thereby destroying this universe and every universe along with it.

In the interim, a carriage was being readied as their form of transportation. Evening was starting to fall.

Putting a hand just beneath her rib cage, Cathryn glanced at Bec before looking at the Doctor. "My dress…." She started. "I think my laces are too tight. I would feel better if they were loosened before we go."

"Did you want some help?" The Doctor took a step towards her and Cathryn just shook her head.

"It will be a couple minutes. Bec can do it. We'll meet you at the carriage," she told him and he gave a simple nod. Through the bond, he knew they wanted to return just as badly as he did so in this case, he allowed them to tend to this minor problem on their own, suspecting that they just needed a moment to express their relief together as they were unable to with their French audience. Besides, he for one could certainly be grateful that a corset was never considered a necessary item for men to wear in history. He could plainly see the struggle his own granddaughters were having to endure with that particular archaic fashion accessory. He turned back to Reinette for the journey that lay ahead relishing the fleeting hope of seeing his beloved TARDIS again. _And Rose._ He thought. Rose would still be there waiting for him and that anticipation filled both his hearts with the joy he momentarily thought he had lost.

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The two girls found cover behind several groves of bushes and trees as they started to speak in frantic tones.

"Pray to God this works." Cathryn was shivering as she looked at Bec. "I won't be sold off like that. To be used like a whore. I don't care what they call it here."

"It will work." Bec tried to insert confidence in her tone. "It has to." She paused. "What about Reinette? The Doctor asked her to come. It's not like the show. He'll probably take us all through the fireplace all at once. Reinette too."

Cathryn grimaced. It was one of the horrid choices she didn't want to have to contemplate or make but she couldn't risk Reinette. Even if it was for one trip, what if she didn't survive Pete's World and the Cybermen threat? What would happen to history, then? She did care for the courtesan having watched her grow from the age of seven. But she knew Bec had felt this affinity even more closely considering the other girl's maternal nature.

"She's our friend," Cathryn said bleakly. "And I know we love her as one. But because we do, we have to leave her behind. We can't let her suffer at the hands of the Cybermen. Even if she survives that, what then? The Beast?" Cathryn licked her lips. "She thinks the Doctor is an angel. A good man. She has her faith. Sometimes, if we love someone, we have to hurt them to save them." Tears came from her eyes. She wished she could bring Reinette along. It seemed she was able understand them. She had helped to mediate things between themselves and the Doctor to whom she shared a connection. But that wasn't how the timeline worked according to the show. Too much damage seemed to have already been done. "Do you agree? What do you think?"

Bec knew that Cathryn was right, but tried to find ways to solve the dilemma, to picture what might happen the same way she'd visualise possibilities when writing. She'd always found it sad that Reinette hadn't been able to go with the Doctor. Obviously, to keep continuity with the show, she would have to stay behind, but what if she did come?

The devastation of the Cybermen would be traumatic for her. Once more, people would be chopped up and used as parts before her, and just after she had escaped the same fate herself. She wouldn't agree with the Doctor, as he focused on the bigger picture, stopping the Cybermen altogether, rather than saving those walking willingly to their deaths. Of course, the Doctor would care about those dying, but he would callously dismiss them from the greater goal.

She might give him the benefit of the doubt and stay a little longer, having her faith in him restored somewhat when he saves everyone from the Wire, but the next episode... How would Reinette cope given her faith and lack of exposure to ideas about aliens and alternatives in religion and beliefs if she faced the Beast in _The Satan Pit_. The Beast had been able to speak of the darkest secret or pain for each person in that episode. The Beast would break her. She could just imaging the poor woman breaking down at the monsters words and then being zapped to death by one of those communication balls the Ood used.

No, the risk was too great, not only to history whom Reinette was to play an important part in, but for her own sake. She needed to be protected from the horrors of the universe, just as she'd been protected from the clockwork droids.

"No, she can't come," Bec agreed softly. Maybe it was just her imagination running away with her, but the risk was too great. If the Doctor's life wasn't so dangerous..? But it was, and they couldn't risk Reinette for the selfish pleasure of her company. "Even if she survived, it would break her. She'll be safer, happier, here."

Cathryn nodded. Enough time had passed for their excuse of the necessary adjustments to their corset to be considered remedied. "Then, it's settled," she told her. "We can't tell the Doctor." Her eyes flickered to the couple in the distance smiling and visiting together in the near distance, feeling the guilt already upon her. The actions they were forced to take.

"No." Bec briefly rubbed her arms to keep away the sudden chill in the air. "He wouldn't listen. Would probably bring her along regardless." She was looking at Reinette, burdened already by the sorrow of a departure that had to be made on terms the courtesan hardly deserved. "There must be some way to tell her…to explain." She felt herself choking as her chest constricted in despair as to the grave betrayal they were about to commit.

The brunette raised her eyebrows as an idea suddenly took form inside her mind. "Inside the house." She said. "We need a pen and paper." Cathryn glanced at Bec. "It's better than nothing but we need to be quick."

The girls dashed inside, managed to obtain parchment, quills and ink. Struggling with this archaic tool, the writing began. A tedious venture but still a hurried one.

 _Dear Reinette,_

 _Upon reading this, you realise what we've done and consider it likely a betrayal. For this we are terribly sorry. We both love you and if wished with all our hearts if was safe for you to come. But it is our promise to you by everything we hold sacred and our oath to God, your life would be in terrible danger. While in France, you will have several more years to live. Important more years making pivotal decisions, having influence and experiencing the love of your King and family. Spend those years wisely. The Doctor won't return before you have passed from this world._

 _Believe us when we say there are far more terrible things than clockwork droids. Things that are worse than that of death. Your death would have been sooner had you come. As for us, we are destined to fall through a crack in time and we won't be returning._

 _We are so sorry. Someday we hope that you'll believe that we loved you so much that we didn't want you to get caught up in the hell and terror the Doctor calls 'fun'. We wish you all of God's blessings and will pray for you often._

 _It is never the end. One day, we'll all see each other soon. Perhaps then, you'll forgive us and we'll embrace one another as friends once more._

 _With all our love and affection,_

 _Cathryn and Rebecca_

Both girls were silent in appraising what they had written as they folded the letter and placed it in an envelope. It was time for them to go.

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It was the last moment. The Doctor had evaluated the mechanism of the fireplace seeming excited that it was still functioning. He beamed, looking at the three girls. "Ready to come see the stars?" he asked Reinette invitingly. The clear expression of hope on her face was answer enough.

But Cathryn and Bec glanced at each other. They used a carriage since the grounds were already dark to head back to Versaille. The Doctor was actively engaged in a discussion with Reinette about what planet he would take her to first conveying the facts about one world that had a whole library of books from every subject they could imagine. Bec gave a shudder, thinking of the Vashta Nerada that inhabited the Library. He then spoke of another planet, where in his mind, had the best ice cream in all the universe.

Even in the jolting carriage, Bec managed hide the letter that would convey the explanation in case such a venture worked. They had to be prepared and considering their conversation, the decision had already been made. The envelope secreted, ready for the proper time for its sudden delivery.

"Ah ha!" he exclaimed. "Here it is! Everyone grab on." Bec and Cathryn took his hands and Reinette started to take theirs.

It was then they nodded to themselves. Bec dropped the letter on the floor, and both girls gently pushed the courtesan back into her boudoir just before the fireplace turned back to the direction of the space ship.

"I'm sorry." Cathryn had tears in her eyes. "Forgive us but…we can't….we just can't…I'm….." She stumbled over words, but steeled herself, not meeting Reinette's eyes who looked at the trio in apparent disbelief. The woman fell back on the floor just as the fireplace was pivoting.

"Cathryn!" the Doctor hissed in her ear. An immediate reproof.

"God forgive us," Bec muttered. "The letter, Reinette. Please just read-"

The fireplace turned swiftly. They were torn away from Reinette, thrust back onto the space ship. Reinette was instantly gone. The decision had been made. They had left her behind to die.

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 **Authors' note:**

 **Little word of warning, we have basically caught up with where we are writing now. We expect to have next week's chapter ready in time, but thereafter there may be a lag between uploads. We'll do our best to keep up, but please bear with us and be generous.**

 **Thank you to our friends for your help and support: Almadynis Rayne, Fan Fictional Authoress, and to LovelyAmberLight for her contributions to this chapter.**

 **Also keep a look out at emptyvoice's profile this weekend, as she's hoping to upload a Halloween Special.**

 **Until next time! :-)**

 _ **azaadin & emptyvoices**_


	10. Line in the Sand

**Chapter 10: Line in the Sand**

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They stumbled back on board the space ship with Rose and Mickey gawking at them in surprise. But a smile broke out on Rose's face as the blond, hardly able to contain herself, ran up to hug the Doctor. He returned the embrace, alleviated to see her but still decidedly serious regarding his girl's sudden act. He swallowed, looking down at Rose as her hazel eyes once against met his. At one point, he thought it would be centuries until he saw her again.

"How long has it been?" he asked quietly. The disappointment over what occurred was thick in his voice.

"Jus' about two weeks. We ran out of milk," Rose told him, shooting him a cheeky grin with her subtle rebuke. "I told Mickey I wouldn't leave without you but said he could and-"

"I refused," Mickey replied. "Wouldn't leave my newest mates, so Rose was stuck with me."

The Doctor inhaled briefly. Time had worked differently once the connection with the ship had been broken. Now, with the fireplace balancing the system, the previous time displacement had been restored to its previous setting. Faster in France, slower on the ship. Quickly, he turned, bending down in front of the fireplace. "Reinette, sorry about that. Don't know what Cathryn and Bec were thinking but I'll be right there for you. I promise." He paused. "Just look out the window, pick a star and that's the one we'll go see first."

The girl eagerly disappeared as the Doctor cast a firm glance at his granddaughters. "I think it's better you stay here for now." The time mechanism was firmly in place and he knew he would be gone only a matter of moments. His girls were silent, listlessly shuffling their feet, not presenting an argument or insisting that they come along. He heaved a sigh. _What were they thinking?_ He turned back to the fireplace in question. "Going to fetch her right now. Be back in a minute and I expect you both to apologise."

Cathryn and Bec simply watched him leave, knowing their regrets far too well. Reinette's life had been tampered with too much as it was and despite what apologies they issued in their letter, her life would be burdened by the loss of three of her closest friends. None of it was fair, still, they didn't wish to make things irrevocably worse.

His return from the pivoting fireplace with his solemn expression so clearly evident, he stood staring at his girls for those grim moments, a bulky assortment of letters in his possession.

"Doctor?" Rose asked, her voice filled with concern.

"Too late. She's gone. Nothing I can do. Only that one chance to take her along and I arrived five years too late." He shook his head, feeling horrendously upset, but burying it from the sight of his companions. "I was left the house by the King in his generosity. Sees us all as a bit of a mystery." The house, with its memories of Reinette. Pain constricted his hearts and he turned to his girls. "But you already knew this, didn't you?" he asked. "Is that why you pushed her away?"

"Wouldn't bringing her along change the time line?" Cathryn told a half-truth with her question and with it an accusation. She looked at him sharply, struggling to contain her churning emotions. Her grief of Reinette's death mixed with ill contained fury, muddled together as she tried to keep her voice even.

"You said we can't change the past," Bec's voice was quiet. She knew she had to defend their decision but she felt a slow, burning anger towards the Doctor for the fate they just barely averted in 18th century France. Seeing Cathryn's expression, she knew her friend did too.

The Doctor sighed, running a frustrated hand back and forth through his hair. "No, it would have been fine," he answered. "One trip," he explained. "One trip wouldn't have changed anything."

Bec motioned to speak, clenching her jaw. It would never have been just one trip. She knew what she did was right even if he didn't.

"And even if it did," the Time Lord cut her off. "She's not part of our personal time lines. We can change whatever we want. It's my right. The right of a Time Lord... and his curse." He frowned. "I suppose I can't fault you for trying to protect time," he added. "And there really wasn't a moment when you could have asked me about it. But you should have trusted me when I invited her along." He tugged on his ear. The Doctor was torn between his angered frustration and his pride over his girl's choices. He was frustrated because he'd lost a companion when there was no need. But he was proud of them because they'd put the safety of time before a personal relationship.

 _Still,_ he thought to himself. His girls seemed to be hiding something. Perhaps they really had simply disapproved of Reinette or were being petty and vindictive over the role the woman had played in their dictated future in France, and were using his explanation of the first rule of time to excuse their behavior, except they seemed upset over the situation rather than defiant. The Doctor shook his head. If his girls were anything like him, he'd have to keep his wits about him.

"Change whatever you want," Cathryn repeated. "Do whatever you want. So that entails selling me off like a piece of merchandise to be used as a whore by the King," she accused. "To utterly degrade me to the point where I was nothing but an object. That's your right." She paused, fuming as the Doctor turned on her.

His voice was calm. "It's been several hours since you had your last injections and-"

"Screw you!" Cathryn cried out. "And you were going to use a sacred marriage act to force Bec into committing an act of Bigamy. A sin! Do you not care the slightest bit of how we feel or what we believe?" she challenged. "Or no, wait. 18th century France isn't that different from Gallifrey, is it? Arranged marriage. Children forced to obey their families no matter what the cost. No freedom. We're just property to you." She glared at him. "How could you? Make me into a prostitute and tell Bec that her marriage to her husband doesn't matter. What about her children? Do you care at all about them?" She let out a shuddering breath. "No you wouldn't, would you?"

The Doctor had taken another step towards her but this time, Cathryn was faster, acted more swiftly. "No, you have NO RIGHT!" she exclaimed. "None at ALL! Just go to hell!"

With that, she ran, directly back into the TARDIS, seeking sanctuary. The library was too obvious a place for refuge but the wine cellar. Maneuvering herself behind all those barrels, she pressed her back against the wall, placing her hands on the cold cement floor. _Don't let him find me._ She thought, mentally begging the TARDIS for a few hours solitude. Just some respite she desperately needed. _Please don't let him find me._

The Doctor went to follow her, but stopped at Rebecca's dejected words. "Just leave her alone. It's not like we can escape anyway." She rubbed her forehead, feeling totally defeated and downtrodden, missing the Doctor's pained expression at her choice of words.

"Bec, I'm just trying to help and understand." He held his hands up calmingly, even though the emotions he could sense from her weren't the same anger as Cathryn's, but something worse.

She ignored him, walking the long way around him to return to the ship, their prison. She paused briefly as she stood in the doors, reaching out and holding the frame. She hadn't noticed it at first, but now she couldn't notice anything else. The warmth they had missed in France was back, comforting, barely a whisper, but definitely present. It wasn't the ship's fault they were being held here, it was her master's. She dropped her hand to her side, her fingers briefly stroking the wood as they fell, silently thanking the ship and apologising that she wasn't happy to be back, wishing she could be home instead.

All she'd learned that day, the power he had over them. Locking them in his ship, giving them injections to make them like him, it hadn't been enough for him. No, he was taking over their minds too. Worming his way into their thoughts so they had no privacy from him, no respite. How could she have ever liked the show, his character? Twelve was right. Eleven was right. He was not a good man.

 _Next adventure_ , she reminded herself as she wandered into the ship. It was their chance to get home. She tried to hold that hope, but she felt swallowed by her despair. They would never escape.

" _No_ ," she whispered to herself. She couldn't let herself fall into depression, not now, not with Pete's World so close. She could fall apart after they escaped. In the past, when her depression had been at it' worst, she struggled to make even the simplest decisions, struggled to motivate herself to perform any task, even getting out of bed in the morning had at times just felt too hard. If she gave up now, she would lose her only chance to return to her children, because she wouldn't be able to fight for it. She turned on the spot in a flare of determination. She knew what she was like. If she hid in a hole like she wanted, hid from the world and its problems, she would stop being able to function. But if she forced herself to act against her instincts to hide in solitude, if she forced herself to engage with other people, she could hold onto herself, stave off her depression, keep going.

 _I need to pray more_ , she reminded herself. It was something she had been struggling with before falling into this world of nightmares, her prayer. It was always the first to slip when depression set in. For her, prayer was her half of the conversation with God. Just as in any relationship, it required communication and quality time. Recently, however, her prayers had been more like tweets, wishes she whispered rather than words that held meaning.

 _I'm sorry_ , she whispered instead, begging for help, begging for strength, begging that she would trust in Him.

She wandered down the hallway, searching for her friend, thinking they could both use the comfort and support of the other.

xxxxxxxxxx

Cathryn heard a light tapping at the door. Her body immediately tensed, thinking it was the Doctor but she closed her eyes, exhaling deeply at the sight of her friend who was walking down the steps to where Cathryn had been sitting, supported by an oak barrel, while she traced random patterns in the dust on the floor.

"Mind some company?" Bec asked.

"No," Cathryn managed. "Sorry about before. Kind of messing up our chances with Pete's World but…" She blinked her eyes rapidly, feeling tears start to form. "He was going to allow me to be used as a whore. I'm just a piece of merchandise to him." She sighed. "What's to stop him from trying again?" She looked at Bec. "What's to stop him from forcing you into a marriage? I'm sure he would love to be a father again, your consent notwithstanding." A bitter feeling of rage engulfed her, even as a horrified shudder ran through her friend. "Who needs consent when he initiated this bond?" She swallowed. "It's the injections. He managed to get us addicted, telling us we'll die if we stop taking them. What a bunch of crap." Cathryn clenched her fists together tightly. "He's worse than the Time Lord Victorious." It was said in a scarce whisper but Bec's eyes widened at the sudden declaration.

"He's supposed to be better," Bec agreed her voice flat. Rose was still with them, she thought. He's supposed to be better. "I keep thinking about what Eleven says, that good men don't need rules," she murmured.

"This isn't a story anymore," Cathryn told her fiercely. "It's real life with real rules. One more episode." She was telling herself this as much as she was telling Bec. "I think we need a couple of the syringes of the crap he's given us." Her mind was churning. "Once he leaves, we can contact Mickey, explain everything. The Torchwood there will help us. Make the withdraws tolerable." At least she hoped so. She looked at Bec who was the picture of perfect despair. "We've come too far to give up now. Think of your family. Your children. This is your chance to get back to them. We aren't quitting before we started, right?"

"No," she said, shaking her head, agreeing that they couldn't give up, but unable to quite summon the emotion she needed to believe it. 'Fake it 'til you make it', her husband had often said, however, he had been speaking about work, hospital politics, rather than how to survive being kidnapped by an alien whom should be fictional. She took a breath.

"I know it's Pete, that Pete will run Torchwood over there eventually, but can we still trust them?" Bec asked nervously. This was the part of the plan she was most concerned about, having to turn to Torchwood. "Even if they're better, if they're like Torchwood One... A-and... and he's done something to us... Maybe we should hide and just ask Mickey. He can help us from inside. He doesn't like what's happening either."

"That's true," Cathryn agreed. "Mickey is the better option but I don't know." She was thinking about the shots. How she felt when she was nearing a time for another dose. How erratic her behavior was. She couldn't keep her thoughts straight nor prevent many of the words that fell from out of her mouth. She was dizzy and often felt feverish as though she were running a temperature. She swallowed, her throat was dry. That similar sensation was already starting to creep over her again. The horrendous symptoms attached to the withdraws from the injectable material the Doctor kept using. Nervously, she glanced at the door, lowering her voice in anticipation of his unwelcome arrival.

"You don't know about what?" Bec asked.

"Some years ago, I went through narcotic withdraw from these fentanyl patches my doctor put me on after a misdiagnosis and an infection from a surgery that shouldn't have happened. I decided to stop using the patches because my condition was discovered and treated. The narcotics caused a lot of nausea you see…" Cathryn looked at her nervously.

"Alright, yes. Go on."

"I ended up in the ER in severe withdraw. It was dangerous, you see. Horrible on the body to just quit. Took me several weeks to taper the dosage off but…" Cathryn took a deep breath. "We talked about withdraws but Bec, it's not just a matter of a few annoying symptoms to wait out. I just think, something like this could be potentially life threatening. We would need Torchwood sooner than later to make a sort of derivative of the shots so we can taper off safely." She shrugged. "Call it life experience but I don't want all our work to get our freedom go to waste by the two of us dying from withdraw symptoms in some unknown dimension because we didn't get Pete's help sooner than later." Gritting her teeth, she sighed. "I hate this. I hate what he's doing but-"

A knock sounded on the door to the wine cellar, which Bec in her wisdom had thought to secure before talking to Cathryn. The two of them immediately froze in position, present discussion now distant in their minds as the Doctor entered the room. "I'm sorry," he began seriously. "I can't afford to wait any longer." Cathryn simply watched him as he took a step closer, removing a prepared syringe. "We can talk further after you both have rested."

 _Rested._ She thought and then she knew. "Sedatives. You're sedating us." She glanced at Bec who shared her gaze of trepidation.

"It's necessary," he said, thinking about the girl's sudden actions towards Reinette. Their erratic behavior. Of course, considering the turn of events, he should have foreseen this. But now he had just lost a friend. A companion. He made exceptions for his girls in France in removing sedation from their treatment regimen. Now he knew that had been a serious mistake in regards to their care. One he couldn't risk again. "You'll feel better when it's done."

"Wait," Bec insisted. "Just wait." She wasn't even aware of her new habit of clasping her hands around the crook of her arms to guard her veins from any intrusion. She stared at the Doctor grimly, struggling to put her thoughts in order. She didn't want to compromise with the man, the alien who was ready to force her into a marriage and whore her friend off to a French king but what could she do? _We're just property to him,_ she thought. In the century they just managed to escape, the alien that still held them prisoner didn't see them as equals but simply possessions to be used as he saw fit, for the betterment of his own standing. It was such a despairing reminder of the precariousness of their position. "We don't need sedatives." She looked at Cathryn briefly for confirmation who gave a slight nod. In this, the two now seemed to share the same frame of mind. If they were asleep, it stood as a possibility their sedation would last throughout Pete's World and they would miss it entirely. Neither was a risk they wanted to take. This was the better path. "If you give us the normal injections, we won't fight you and we'll go to sleep on our own. Just give us a chance," she implored.

The Doctor sighed, shaking his head. "I gave you both your chances. On the spaceship and in France. But this time, I can't give you another." He paused. "Not now." What seemed to remain unsaid was that phrase that echoed through both girls mind. _'One chance. One warning. No second chances. I'm that kind of man.'_

"Something is coming," Bec managed suddenly, despite the Doctor's seeming resolution. She remembered the line often used on the show.

"A storm," Cathryn chimed in, catching on to what Bec was up to.

The Doctor's eyes widened. This was more than unusual at this stage of retransformation.

"If we can't wake up, we could miss it," said Bec.

"We could die," Cathryn added for good measure.

"You'll be safe on the TARDIS."

"No, we won't," both girls said at once.

"She'll be hurt or asleep or something," Bec explained.

"And this is supposed to happen in the next few hours?" The Doctor wondered at the perfect timing of it all. He wondered if his girls were lying to get out of taking their medicine. They were HIS kin after all. Twisting the truth was practically in their genes.

"We don't know," Bec answered honestly. "It could be a few hours, a few days, or... She shook her head, wondering how far away Pete's World was.

The Doctor frowned. He closed his eyes for a moment, stilling his being, embracing his extra senses that allowed him to discern time and reality, senses that his granddaughters were rapidly developing. If they were correct, the implications for their acuity once their transition was complete was concerning, given those senses were only just developing now.

He frowned again. He _could_ feel a storm approaching, a bad one, but it was still some distance off. Was this the disruption they could feel? Or was there another sooner event they could foresee. _'The TARDIS will be hurt or asleep or something.'_ Caring for the girls had been hard enough if France. If he lost access to his ship again he would face the same struggles. And if he left them inside and lost them...

His thoughts flew back to the letter Reinette had left him with her own message. She had written to each of them, and he intended to pass her missives on to them after they had rested, but she had also included the letter they left for her when they forced her to stay behind. It was another subject he had intended to raise with them after their rest, but perhaps, given their behavior and warnings, the situation was more pressing than he anticipated.

He still didn't understand their developing sense and knowledge of time. Time Lord's were loomed with their physiology fully formed and merely needed to learn how to understand the sensations these anatomical structures produced. Cathryn and Rebecca were in the process of growing those structures within their bodies and brains, and he didn't know how this development would affect their senses. However, he knew that, even if their senses were distorted or unrefined, they were certainly present given their foreknowledge and their reactions to the distortions and paradoxes created by the clockwork repair droids, and if they were right about a coming danger then he would need to be prepared for it, and if they were wrong, there would be no harm in having been ready.

He ran his hand through his hair as his mind raced, absentmindedly pacing in a circle. Had there been more room, he likely would have paced further, but the wine cellar was one of the more cramped rooms in his extraordinary ship.

 _I should come up with a portable IV cuff for them_ , he thought, pursing his lips. It wasn't ideal, but he could always remove it once the need for it became redundant and he could give it its own power source separate from the TARDIS. It could monitor their vitals and give the next dose immediately when they need it without delay, mitigating their physical and mental disturbances as the dosage ran low. His eyes lit up briefly at the thought. He should of thought of this before. It would take out the risk of missing or delaying a dose. A few bigger on the inside infusion chambers and it could ready mix whatever combination of hormones and nutrients their body needed. He nodded to himself before frowning again. He would limit their release of sedatives to only when they were onboard the TARDIS or at his discretion, as sedation at other times could place them in harm's way. He could feel their mounting anxiety and stress through the bond. The panic and fear was evident given the mere prospect of sedation. They were already overdue and considering the rate of their metabolism… they were merely children. Afraid of something utterly intangible but fear for them at this hour, in this state of transition came with a nasty set of repercussions. It would work more to his advantage to keep them calm. _At least until the mechanisms are in place._ Then, he wouldn't be privy to so much frantic concern regarding their health at each passing moment.

"Alright," he said finally to them. "I'll change the syringes. You can both go to sleep on your own."

Cathryn swallowed, brushing her sweaty palms against her jeans. The clearest sensation of relief started to overcome her. It had actually worked. They managed to talk him out of putting them asleep. Ultimately, she felt grateful, thanking God for not abandoning them so utterly to this alien's foibles and whims. "You will? You'll remove the…." She exhaled deeply. "Thank you," she managed. "Thank you for not forcing us to sleep. You have no idea…" It was the sensation of helplessness that came with being sedated against her will. Another violation almost in mimicry to what occurred to her those years before. Whatever reprieve she and Bec were granted, she would now gladly take it.

He studied them. Yes, this was a bit better. They felt calmer and were putting less stress on their already taxed systems. He smiled briefly, knowing for the moment, this was indeed the right approach. "I need you both to come to sickbay so I can prepare a new solution." The syringes he had contained a sedative that was too fast acting. He would only have twelve seconds as a lead time before loss of consciousness resulted. He would combine the biodata with a different tranquilizer that offered at least two minutes before either of his girls felt the results. Briefly, he sighed inwardly. He should have considered that the first time after the encounter with Sutekh in the Louvre, then Bec wouldn't have been so disoriented as to run and hide in the library. What would have happened if he was a few minutes later in administering the injection to her… The thought caused both his hearts to swell in horrible unease.

"I'll also run a few scans to check your recovery," he added. It was something he needed to do anyway, but it might also help him trick them onto a bed so they wouldn't fall and injure themselves when the sedative took effect.

"Okay," Bec agreed softly for them both. Only another day or two, she reassured herself. She pressed her lips together nervously. They still had to get their hands on the psychic paper. Maybe, before they slept, she could briefly talk to Rose, see if her plan for appropriating that little black wallet worked.

He held out his hand to Cathryn, offering to help her up, while Bec lingered to one side.

She took it. _Might as well try to stay on his good side since he sort of met us half way._ With that, she bolstered herself on the medbay bed without complaint, watching with prepare a new set of injections. "Thank you for hearing us out." Might as well lay on the gratitude. "It means a lot to know you're listening to us."

"I'm always listening," the Time Lord said. He paid close attention to every single word they said. "I'll do the best I can to make this as painless as possible. There's no need of putting any additional anxiety on you both." He was completely honest in that regard as he carefully substituted our one sedative for another before carrying back the newly prepared needles to his girls. _Let's make this quick and painless._ He thought.

"What are you all up to?" Mickey's voice entered the room but then grimaced as he took in the scene. Cathryn couldn't help but smile in response. He was really proving to be a true friend to them and knew without a doubt, he would have their backs in Pete's World. It would be months before the dimensional jumpers were ready but while they were waiting for that time to approach, she hoped that once out of the Doctor's direct supervision, their friendship would really have a chance to flourish. _Maybe I'll just let him teach me how to play one of those video games._ She thought to herself.

"You just couldn't wait, could you?" Mickey turned on the Doctor, taking him on as an immediate challenge. After all, he knew the Doctor wasn't the only one grieving the lost of his French courtesan he flirted with all the while before, stringing Rose along. The girls were friends with her too and, from what he heard, they were only trying to do his job despite the fact it cost them someone they cared about. Mickey saw how grief stricken they were when returning. It reminded him of losing his grandmother, the one relative left that raised him since he was a boy. He glanced at Cathryn, remembering how she said her father was dying. _His highness over there doesn't care,_ Mickey thought. _As long as he gets what he wants._ "After what happened to them, they don't get a break, do they? You-"

"Mickey," Cathryn said, shaking her head. "It's okay. It's not worth it right now." She licked her lips. "Tell you what. Maybe in a few hours, you could show me how to play Nintendo." She was trying to diffuse the situation. Suddenly, she winced as the Doctor, slid the needle directly into her vein. Once the syringe was removed, she rubbed the spot, frowning at the small series of puncture marks that ran up and down her arm. It made her look like a drug user.

She only glanced up briefly as he took Bec's arm gently, while she frowned, looking away as another needle was inserted into her arm.

The two started to stand only for the Doctor to look up at them as he put the syringes away once sanitized. "Just a minute. I still have to run a couple tests before you go."

Both inched back on their beds, nodding slowly, while the Doctor put on a show busying himself in a cabinet, rifling through instruments. _Thirty more seconds._ He thought.

Bec felt a wave of dizziness wash through her, even as she sat on the edge of her bed. The Doctor moved over near the monitor studying whatever the screen told him.

"Can you both lay back for just a moment while I run this scan?" the Time Lord requested.

Both girls wordless complied, not wanting to admit the relief they felt to lie down properly as their head swam dizzily.

"The moment you get on board," Mickey said continuing to accuse the Doctor. In his opinion, Cathryn and Bec needed someone to stand up for them against the Doctor, someone to act as their champion, as he seemed to show them so little regard. Rose had argued against him, but he'd seen no sign of their driver caring as she claimed.

"You didn't see him, Mickey," she had told him in the kitchen. "You didn't see how upset he was."

"No," he had admitted. "I haven't seen any of that, and I doubt they have either."

"Look, I'll make some tea for us all, yeah?" she'd suggested. "Cathryn and Bec love their tea. We can all sit down, the five of us, and we'll work things out."

That was the reason Mickey had come searching for the others, only to find the Doctor forcibly medicating them once more.

"For us, it's been three days, and I've only been able to run rudimentary scan to monitor their recovery and physiological transference, so, yes, I'm concerned and wanted to check them as soon as I had the facilities available." The Doctor didn't even look back from the monitor as he spoke, a hard edge to his words.

"The things I saw, the stories Rose told. I thought space sounded amazing. Traveling through time," Mickey said. "But it's not. It's all you deciding what's right and wrong. You don't even take other people's opinions into account. If you say it, that's how it is."

The Doctor groaned and turned to face the much younger man. "Mickey, the universe isn't all black and white, good and evil, as you seem to want it to be. I'm a Time Lord. I've seen time stretched out before me, seen how every moment throughout the universe fits together. After you've seen that, when you are the last one left to uphold time and reality, then feel free to pass judgment on me. Until then, trust that I know a little more about 'right' and 'wrong' than you do."

"No, I get that. Time Lord. I get it," Mickey said, agreeing that he couldn't understand all that the Doctor could. "But you don't get this. Can't you even see it? They're afraid and you're doing nothing but making it worse." He gestured back at the two girls behind them, glancing back himself for good measure. "Look at how..." He paused. "Hang on." He rushed up to Bec quickly checking on her, looking over at Cathryn from where he stood. "They... They're asleep."

"Of course they are," the alien agreed, turning back to the monitor. "They needed rest."

"You did it to them. You made them sleep again." Mickey felt his disgust welling up once more. Even as they were speaking, the other man was enforcing his own idea of 'right' upon the reluctant passengers.

"They are in a critical stage of transformation, exacerbated by their trauma and slow recovery over the last few days." The Doctor turned, looking down at Mickey in frustration. "You say I don't care. I'm keeping them alive. They're only _children_."

"They're older than I am. Me and Rose both," Mickey argued. "Are we children too? You'd never treat Rose like this," he pointed out.

"You're not Time Lord." It was that same tone of superiority. "Children born on Gallifrey-"

"Oh, have I forgotten something?" Mickey countered. "Have you? Cause it seems to me they both said they were born on Earth." He thought for a moment before correcting himself. "An earth. They're human too. That rubbish you keep injecting them with doesn't seem to do them any favours." He shook his head. "Is this what you would do to Rose if she was-"

"Yes." The Time Lord turned on him with a stormy expression. "If her dormant TNA was activated and was undergoing transition, I would absolutely do what it takes to keep her alive." His voice was fierce.

"Including chasing her down to sedate her against her will?" Mickey asked. "After the Louvre, did you even offer to let Bec or Cathryn sleep on their own? Did you ask now?" The young man felt a sense of satisfaction when the Time Lord fell silent for a few seconds before he turned back to his granddaughters.

"There was no choice."

"Because you don't give them one." Mickey said. "You never did." With that, he noisily dragged a chair over and sat down between the two girl's beds. Maybe it wasn't much but the least he could do now was watch them while they slept and be there when they woke.

A cold silence now stretched between the Doctor and Mickey. Not even Rose's presence when she came in with a pot of tea could help to bridge the gulf. She was likewise concerned at the action the Doctor took, though not to the same extent as Mickey, but in his usual special tone he took when Rose was in his company, the Doctor explained it to her. How their stress and anxiety was taxing their already depleted systems. They were already overdue for an injection and he had to keep them calm, which meant telling a small lie by omission. "Their vitals and blood chemistry were on critical levels. I couldn't risk losing them again," he told her, looking at her sorrowfully.

"Rose, c'mon," the young man protested. "He sedated them without telling them again. He's-"

"Okay, enough you two with the bickerin'. Haven't seen a row like this than when I was with my Mum." She took a deep breath. "Doctor, are the sedatives necessary? 'S just…. maybe all of us silly apes here don't understand. Why do you think Cathryn and Bec couldn't fall asleep on their own?" She paused. "Did they tell you they wouldn't?"

The Doctor rocked back on his heels, his gaze intent on the blond, thinking hard before he spoke. "They might have but I had no guarantees." He shook his head. "I needed to be sure."

Mickey only started to grind his teeth. _Guarantees._ He winced. _He makes them sleep because he needs to be in absolute control._

"So you don't trust them." Rose nodded. "And, in turn, they don't trust you. Who do you think is going to bridge that gap?" she asked. "You or them?"

The Doctor frowned at Rose's question but then smiled remembering the IV cylinders he was going to make. After all, Rose's insight once again illuminated the barricade that stood in the way between himself and his girls starting the relationship he craved. All the animosity the shots he gave them was ruining any progress he hoped to have. He ran both his hands through his hair before glancing at the two humans standing in front of him. "Actually, I may have the solution. One that won't require me to inject them every day."

"You found a better kind of medicine?" Rose asked in confusion. Mickey on the other hand was wary at this apparent solution the Doctor seemed excited about. He had a feeling he wouldn't like it one bit.

"Yes, I did." The Doctor was still grinning at Rose as he removed a strange metal tool, with indentations in the surface resembling buttons extending out to prongs on either side. He was using it to adjust what appeared to be tiny oblong cylinders, the metal changing color as he worked, resonating a slight vibration. "Should of thought of it before really. Heads too thick. Still, better late than never, I suppose."

"What is that?" Rose asked with some morbid fascination. "Are they…?" She squinted at them. "Wait, they're bigger on the inside." Rose found herself frowning. This wasn't exactly what she had in mind.

"Exactly," he said fervently. "It works on its own, independent power source. All I had to do was activate it with this." He raised the tool he was using for Rose's inspection. "I'm putting in multiple solutions. All the treatments they'll need for the next several months." He took Bec's arm gently as he started to insert the device in direct contact with her veins. "No more injections twice a day. I can adjust the dosage with my sonic and should they need to sleep, they could think it's natural. The sedative would act subtly and they'll go to bed on their own. No more unnecessary stress and-"

"So, you're putting those things in their arms and don't intend to say a word?" Mickey was gritting his teeth. "You're just going to lie?"

The Doctor turned to look at him as though he was the only truly alien thing in that room and at that moment, Mickey did feel like one. Alienated. Isolated and alone. Had Rose changed so much? Had he? Was he the only one left that thought all this was wrong? _No._ He thought, looking at Bec and Cathryn. _If they were awake, they would agree._

"I'm doing what is in the best medical interests of my family," the Doctor said. His tone was icy. "For my kin." Mickey shook his head and knew. While he was here, it would always be like this. The Doctor's way. Either his way or the highway. As seeming to emphasize that point, the Time Lord spoke again. "My TARDIS. My rules."

The warning was clear. If Mickey didn't get in line, then he would be removed, left behind. He already put up more trouble than even the Doctor was posed to tolerate from humans and he considered himself very patient. But if it wasn't for his girls and Rose, he would likely have taken Mickey home after the attack at the Louvre. If Mickey hadn't encouraged the girls to leave the TARDIS….the Time Lord clenched his jaw at the thought.

"Doctor, when they find out…" Rose just shook her head. She knew they would both be appalled and horrified. How would the Doctor even try to explain it to them?

"They don't need to find out," he said. "There is no reason for them to know."

Silence prevailed. Rose was conflicted. She trusted the Doctor, but this was a lot even for her to accept. Mickey was simply angry. But at the moment, there was nothing he could do. _Not at this moment…_ He thought to himself before

turning away in disgust and headed out of the medbay, deciding to go to the kitchen to make a sandwich before returning. He needed a moment to clear his head. To make a decision. After all, he saw what tool the Doctor used to activate those devices, the Doctor was installing. Could he really risk making a stand?

 _How well do we know him? How well does Rose know him?_ That's what bothered him. Despite the fact that Rose seemed inclined to excuse him, what Mickey was now paying witness to was kidnapping and imprisonment of other humans only a little older than himself. He was watching them being drugged every day and for all the Doctor's reasons, their 'symptoms' from their 'transition' seemed link to the cocktail that was being forced on them. The real question was could he afford not to act? Not to try to help.

"You understand, then Mickey?" the Doctor asked just as Mickey entered the corridor.

"More than you think," came the young man's response. He paused briefly. "I'm hungry. Going to get a sandwich, in case you're wondering. I'll be right back to sit with them."

"They'll sleep for several more hours yet," the Time Lord said and Rose stepped forward, placing her hand on his arm. He glanced at her, remembering all the fun and simple memories they once had together. Until he came along, changing everyone in the process of a few hours.

"You didn't get much sleep while the Doctor was away." Rose's voice was soft. "I can check in on them. I'll try to talk the Doctor 'round. You know, he was bound to get carried away. Just needs a reminder."

"Yeah, you do that," Mickey agreed. If anyone was going to get into that alien's skull, it would be Rose. "But I'm not very tired. Just going to grab a coffee and wait with them. Waiting seems to be one thing I'm good at." It was a sarcastic mutter that echoed down the corridor as he made his way to the kitchen. It was going to be a very long day.

xxxxxxxxxx

After Mickey had left, Rose headed back in the medbay to talk to the Doctor. She was more than a little disappointed. The last few days were nearly heartbreaking as she almost thought should never see him again. That he had chosen Reinette, a girl he only met over brief occasions in the courtesan's life over Rose who had stayed with the Doctor. Never doubting him. That is, until now.

So this time, she spoke her mind, demonstrating just how devastated she had started to feel. Those two weeks without a word. Didn't Sarah Jane get abandoned in much the same way? She cleared her throat as the Doctor glanced towards her from the streaming Gallifreyian on the monitors above his granddaughter's beds.

"You left me," Rose started. "You took them with you." She nodded toward the sleeping women. "But you left m..." She swallowed the lump in her throat, and started again. "You said I could spend the rest of my life with you." Her frown deepened. "That you wouldn't leave me behind."

"Rose..."

"I just need to understand why, Doctor." She shook her head. "We argued in Cardiff over the Gelth. An' we had that row over me savin' my dad. I was angry as hell when you tricked me into the TARDIS, and sent me away from the game station. But we've always worked it out. You always explain. So, start explainin'. 'Cause from where I'm standin' it looks like you took them with you 'cause they're Time Lord. An' you left me because I'm only hu..." Her voice broke, and she turned away. "Mickey and me. We're only human." She waved a hand toward Bec and Cathryn. "An' then you go and do something like this." She was referring to how he'd sedated them. "Ever since they showed up you've been... different." She turned back to face him, tears evident in her eyes. " 'M not lookin' for a row, Doctor. I just need you to explain it to me. And use small words, so my human brain can wrap itself around them."

"Oo," the Doctor blew out a breath. His Rose was angry. She may have said she didn't want a row, but there was no mistaking her mood.

"Doctor," Rose called his name when he didn't answer.

"Right," he nodded. "Small words." He ran his hands through his hair. "If Reinette died, that would be bad," he started.

"I got that bit," the Doctor winced at Rose's tone.

"And if I left them here," he gestured toward the sleeping girls. "Without me, they would have died. Bec and Cathryn dying would be bad too." He looked at Rose. "Simple enough?"

"You're being rude again, Doctor."

"Sorry. Sorry." He shifted from one foot to the other, and put his hands in his pockets. "Oh, Rose," he whined. "Don't be like that. If I could have taken you with us, I would have. But the strain on the time window was already at a hundred and fifty percent. If I added anymore mass to the trip, the artron deficit could have backlashed into sending us into some sort of disintegrating temporal pocket universe. Think of a soap bubble," he motioned with his hands, "stuck on the outside of another bubble. The parasite bubble pops first. Sometimes ages before the big one."

Rose realized he was still dumbing his explanation down for her, but just nodded her response.

"And even if we'd made it, Rose, the 1700's is no place for a woman."

She gave him a look.

"No, really," tried the Doctor. "You would have been forced to live out..." Now it was his turn to choke. "You would have lived out the rest of your life in the past." He frowned. "Women were slaves. You would have had your choice of wife, mistress, or prostitute. That's if you even had a choice... They didn't." He motioned toward the girls. "And what if something happened to me? You'd become someone's property, someone's thing. You'd never see your mum again whether I was there or not. The medical care is barbaric. They nearly killed my granddaughters. And don't get me started on the lack of sanitation. The strain of all that happened put my girls under an extreme amount of stress. That's why I put them under. If they didn't sleep, their new organs could begin to shut down." He took a step closer to Rose. "I thought you'd use program one to go home." His eyes were on her shoes. "I planned on meeting back up with you there." He lifted his eyes to meet hers. "Would've been waiting for you as soon as you stepped out of the TARDIS." The Doctor took his hands out of his pockets, and let them rest on Rose's shoulders. "Would've been hours for you, centuries for me. But I would've come back."

"Oh, Doctor." Rose gave him a hug, and the Doctor returned the favor. Rose buried her face in his chest, and held him a little tighter.

xxxxxxxxxx

Bec woke up groggily and, having just been dreaming about searching for a bathroom, immediately rolled her legs out of the bed, crying out in surprise when the floor was further away than she thought, catching herself with her tummy on the bed and her legs hanging down. She didn't recognise where she was, everything just seemed white and sharp, and she could hear a soft grumbling, grinding sound nearby, like the snuffling and growling of a wild animal. She stumbled in a dizzy circle, heavily relying on the bed to keep her balance. Still needing the bathroom, but fearful of the animal in case it tried to attack her.

"Bec?" a familiar voice whispered out to her, just discernible through the rumbling growl. "Are you alright?"

She turned on the spot again, her bleary focus fixing on the bed opposite hers, where a dark haired figure was sitting. "Cathryn?" she asked, barely succeeding at wrapping her mouth around the name properly.

"He did it again," the other woman told her bitterly, obviously more alert than the blonde. "We can't trust him. Not with anything."

"Do you know where the bathroom is?" Bec asked without warning that being her priority over whatever her friend was referring to.

"Oh, over there," she pointed. She'd have grinned at the other girl's amusing confusion, if the reason for it wasn't so serious and grim. When Bec returned a few minutes later, she was obviously far more awake than she had been moments before, her face still wet from where she'd splashed herself, an irate expression upon it. Cathryn too had taken just a few minutes for her confusion to fade when she'd woken, coming to the realisation of what had happened just as Bec had practically fallen out of the bed.

As she reentered the room, Bec's eyes briefly fixed on Mickey, who was the source of the strange snuffling sound she had heard initially. He was slouched back as much as he could be in the uncomfortable looking chair, his feet up on a small empty equipment table, and his head tipped right back over the top of the chair, the incredibly uncomfortable position likely being a major factor contributing to his excessively loud snoring.

Bec walked slowly, still careful not to stumble, over to Cathryn, before sitting upon the foot of her bed.

"He promised," she muttered bitterly. She had been angry at him, fearful of what he was doing, of what he might do, but Bec had secretly held onto that hope that he could be better, that he would change his mind and help them get home once they could get him to understand they weren't his family, that they just wanted to go home. However, the last day especially had chipped away at that hope. The Bond he had instigated between them, planning to force her to marry him - she couldn't repress a physical shudder at the very notion of being forced to marry the alien, her heart calling for, crying for, her husband back home. And now _this_.

 _'The Doctor lies,'_ she reminded herself bitterly. She had naively assumed that because of all she and Cathryn knew of him from the show, from their stories, that they would have more success picking those moments when he was less than honest, that they would have the insight they needed to protect themselves from his manipulations as much as possible, but they were just as much victims of him as others he deceived without qualm.

Cathryn agreed miserably to this sentiment warily examining the medbay door before looking back at Mickey. How long had they slept? The position in which he was forced to adapt a bed, looked awkward to say the least. It was in equal location between the two beds for which the girls had awoken. Gingerly, Cathryn stepped forward towards the young man, putting a hand on his arm, giving him a small shake. "Mickey?" she started.

Nothing. The sounds continued.

"Who knows how long we were here?" Bec folded her arms across her chest. Several hours could have gone by. Mickey likely insisted on staying but after a few hours of waiting, even she had seen how tired he was. The blonde swallowed. It shouldn't have been necessary for Mickey to intercede on their behalf but now it seemed that there were lines being drawn in the sand. The young man was attempting to play an advocate in what could be a very dangerous battle.

"Mickey." Cathryn's tone was raised. A firmer shake and suddenly his eyes flew open as he jolted out of the precarious position nearly falling over if she hadn't grabbed his arm to act as a balance. He gripped her hand tightly as he struggled to right himself while blinking the sleep out of his eyes.

"Sorry. Um, well, sorry," he said. "Just closed my eyes for a minute. Was trying to make sure he didn't come back and do anything else while you were…." Mickey shook his head. "Sorry. Couldn't stop him. Rose was right there…"

"It's not your fault, Mickey," Bec replied softly, releasing a sigh. Briefly, she looked down, noticing for the first time her 18th century clothing had been entirely removed to be replaced by a hospital looking gown. She started to shudder at the thought of this mere violation. Cathryn also in turn looked disgusted by this turn of events. Disgusted but not wholly surprised.

"Did he…" Cathryn looked at Bec seeing the other girl flush prominently in humiliation and she tried to find a way to give voice to her words. "Our clothes, did he…?"

Mickey bit his lip, closing his eyes. "The top layers. When he started to cut away below that, Rose took over. Said she would do it. He listened to _her_." He scowled briefly. The Doctor initially was disinclined to Mickey's objection that they wouldn't want to be changed by him. He refuted it by saying he was in charge of their medical care and 'it wasn't anything I haven't seen before.' Another argument that was going to become heated until Rose stepped in and agreed with Mickey. She took the scissors out of the alien's hand while giving him a look. One that Mickey so often knew. When Rose set her mind to something, she couldn't be argued to the contrary. The Doctor reluctantly stepped aside while she promptly dismissed them both until they had been changed satisfactorily.

"Oh. Okay." Cathryn clenched her hands into fists, feeling her body shake. How much longer could she do this? She couldn't even tell whether the Doctor was telling the truth or not and it sickened her how she thanked him. Showed him gratitude for making that one meager accommodation. _Everything he says is a lie._ Tears came to her eyes and she struggled to contain them. They couldn't give up now. Mickey was still here and the lights of the TARDIS were still on. That meant, the time machine still had functioning power. Pete's World couldn't have happened while they slept, could it? Unless, it was towards the end of the twenty-four hour period and the TARDIS had regained most of her power by the Doctor donating ten years of his life. She frowned briefly. "Mickey, Rose and the Doctor…. are they off the TARDIS?"

"Him. Nah. I wish," Mickey muttered. "Won't take us out of the vortex while you both slept. He's off doing repairs, last thing he said. Rose went to bed…" He looked at the two of them, knowing he had more to tell them but not trusting that the infirmary was the right place to do it. With more than one entrance, he couldn't see if the Doctor might be coming up behind him. "Either of you hungry?" His stomach was growling. "I'm feeling a bit peckish. Don't know about you."

Bec rubbed her arms. Despite the impromptu change, she still felt grimy from their adventures in France, the picnic and rushed carriage ride notwithstanding. "I could really use a shower first." She was desperate for more than just cold water to help loosen the residual affects the sedatives had left behind.

"Yeah, me too," Cathryn muttered. "I smell like…" Well, she was thinking of the horse she had to abandon in France with Reinette. "I need to wash all this off and get out of this thing." She gestured to the hospital gown. "Can't even think about eating until-"

"There's more," Mickey said, keeping the sentence vague but the girls looked at him alerted by his interruption. "But it can wait until the kitchen, alright?" He had to be careful. If the Doctor found out about what he had done, he didn't imagine he would find himself welcome on the TARDIS for much longer.

"Okay," Cathryn said finally. "The kitchen." She would take a quick shower first and then hear what Mickey had to say. She didn't doubt that Bec had the same intention seeing the other girl rubbing faint traces of dirt marks she had accrued from their ventures in the French countryside.

Mickey let out a breath of relief, his hand gliding over the pocket where he secreted the tool he had hidden that the Doctor used to activate the devices he implanted. He waited several minutes after the Time Lord left before absconding with the device from the cabinet it was placed, hoping the alien wouldn't have a need of it beyond the initial set up. He knew he was making a fundamental decision between both sides in this seeming family duel but from what he had seen and heard, the alien had gone much too far.

The three made their way to the door, heading for the corridor only for the Doctor to step immediately in their path, blocking the route they were about to take.

"You're both awake," he observed.

Cathryn said nothing, only feeling the fury burn in her veins as she pressed her lips tightly together to stave off calling him every vulgar word that came to mind. It wasn't doing any good. She could usually modulate her temper well but now, seeing him, she had reached the boiling point. _No._ She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of a response. Any response right now. So she charged forward abruptly, her arm knocking directly against his left shoulder, moving quickly.

He was caught unexpected by this sudden change, feeling her anger but not anticipating this movement. Her increased reflexes she used to simply rush right past him. By the time he reacted to take her arm, she was inches out of his grasp, pacing down the corridor. His hand gripping empty air. "Cathryn," he called behind her. "I need to…." He considered reverting the hallway so she would inevitably circle right back to him.

"It can wait, don't you think?" Mickey challenged, interrupting his thoughts. "At least for them to shower. Or can't they do that on their own now? Is that it?"

The Time Lord turned grimly back to the young man, clenching his jaw at this very slight only to look at his other granddaughter. Her disdain was resonating very clearly through their link. The sensation felt disturbing to him. He'd felt her anger before, had it burn through him when he had to give her injections, but this was different. This felt worse even though it wasn't as strong, like it was burning cold rather than hot.

"Bec," he began, pausing for her inevitable correction, but she simply glared daggers at him and shook her head slowly.

"I thought Time Lords were supposed to be clever." He tone was airy but carried a heaviness underneath it. "How did we end up related to such an _imbecile_?"

On this occasion, he decided to wait for her to finish, not rising to her goading, hoping that if he let her vent he'd be able to calm her down after the fact and take control of the situation again.

She shook her head again, not breaking her gaze. Usually, if she argued with someone, she would walk away and think to herself, _I should have said this_ , or, _I should have said that_. On this occasion though, she'd already decided on the perfect words to say to let him know exactly what she thought of him. "In fact, there's this saying I know, that this guy I used to admire says." Her lip twisted momentarily, a hint of a sneer on her face before she masked it again. " _'No second chances. I'm that sort of a man.'_ "

The Doctor swallowed to feel the resentment pouring off her. He'd found the difference now, the change he'd felt earlier in her emotions. Before, she had still held him in some slight regard, she felt disappointment towards him as though she expected better. Now that was gone. Now she felt cold and uncaring towards him. Before, she'd had cared about him. Now, she didn't. _He needed to fix this_.

"Bec," he tried again, stepping towards her, but he quickly backed away to feel her sudden flare of emotions, at the way she stepped back from him. It wasn't anger he felt from her at that moment. It had been terror. His hearts clenched at the very extent of her fear, and it was all focused on him. _My own family..._

He took another step back. He knew his relationship with them was in poor standing, _very_ poor standing. They were both so very young, the last of his family, and he was just trying to keep them alive. She was _terrified_ of him! He turned and walked away, not exchanging another word. He didn't know how, but he needed to fix this. This was on him. They were his responsibility, his children now to care for and raise. Rose had warned him, even Mickey had spoken up, but he didn't know how to bridge the obvious gap between them, the gap that was steadily growing every day. He needed time to think about it and consider, to come up with some kind of a solution, and they needed time to... _To not be near me_ , he admitted to himself. His very presence was just making things worse. He was just glad he had already fitted their new injection packs. He could give them some space, but they would never be in danger. He fled down the hall, pouring his love and concern to both his grandchildren through the Bond, trying to let them _feel_ how much he cared for them, how he was only looking out for their wellbeing, all the while hiding behind steadfast barriers the hurt he felt, his devastation at how much the last of his family despised and feared him.

" _Woo_! Way to go! I've never seen him run like that!" Mickey cheered after the Time Lord had disappeared, but Bec wasn't celebrating. In fact she was doing all she could to hold back the sobs and tears that threatened to overtake her. She clutched at her chest, trying to breathe evenly, her eyes tightly closed in an unsuccessful attempt to keep them from leaking.

Mickey dithered on the spot as he heard her quiet sob, seeing her shoulders shaking, not knowing how to react as the woman moved from anger to despair with no apparent link between the two. "No, no, it alright," he said, trying to comfort her. He offered her an awkward sideways hug, patting her on the back a few times. "How about we go get you a strong cuppa?" Mickey offered, hoping Rose or even Cathryn might be in the kitchen to be able to comfort the woman like he couldn't.

Bec smiled softly at her friend, firmly pulling herself under control again. "Thanks, Mickey. That sounds nice," she told him, her voice still thick. "But I might meet you there, if that's alright. I just... I just need a few minutes." She wanted to run away and shower, not just to wash off the grime, but to hide the evidence of her weakness, her puffy face and tears.

"Alright. Of course. Not a problem," Mickey agreed, stepping back uncomfortably. "I'll go, ahh... I'll boil the jug for you."

"Mickey," Bec interrupt, smiling at the young man again. "Thank you for looking after us, for sticking up for us," she told him gratefully.

"Not a problem," he answered genuinely. "We, the three of us, we've gotta stick together against his high and mighty."

"Thank you," she repeated. "For everything." She gave him one last thankful grin, before turning off into the TARDIS, needing some time alone to pull herself together.

xxxxxxxxxx

Cathryn turned up in the kitchen first, her bag in hand to see Mickey already attentively watching a kettle start to boil.

"I thought you preferred coffee," she said quietly, drawing up to his side, and he gave her a smile.

"Well, for friends I make an exception." He was concentrating on the filter, frowning. Despite the fact that he grew up in London, he actually didn't know precisely how to boil loose leaf tea. Any tea he drank usually came from tea bags dropped into the filter but he had watched Cathryn mix it a few times. "Is this right?" He gestured to the tea bong where he leveled the chai leaves in.

"Ah, yes. One tablespoon per cup. Can't really go wrong," she told him, nodding as he followed her directions. _The irony._ She thought. As an American she never thought she would be the one to instruct one born in the United Kingdom, especially Mickey Smith on how to make loose leaf tea. But as she was found out by some shock, only the Doctor seemed aware of how to make the beverage. Rose and Mickey, like the majority of British residents relied on tea bags. _That's so strange._ She just shook her head but decided to make no comment at least to those two about it.

"Is Bec coming?" He glanced at the door nervously, not wanting to waste words or risk them being overheard by the wrong set of ears.

"I'm sure she will be soon," Cathryn said, glancing towards the door. She turned back to Mickey, smiling warmly at him. He was proving himself to be a true friend, something she and Bec sorely needed. While they waited, she instructed Mickey on some of the finer points of mixing varieties of leaves and flavours to the tea.

"Ooo, that smells lovely." Bec's voice drifted in from the entrance a few minutes later. Cathryn looked back at her friend who was promptly closing the door behind her. Her hand, untangling still partially damp hair, while she approached the counter. Cathryn in the interim pulled out sugar and milk for the partially brewed tea that was starting to seep.

"Good," Mickey said, glancing at the closed door with relief but kept his voice quiet nonetheless. "We all need to talk." He took a deep breath. "I want you to know, seeing what he did last time, hearing what happened in France, I want to help." He paused, pulling the metal device from his jeans he'd been hiding. "I have to help."

Cathryn stared at the piece of equipment with renewed anxiety and confusion before exchanging glances with Bec. "Mickey. What is that?" She watched the young man pause as he looked again at the door. She approached him quietly, speaking softly. "He did something while we slept, right?" She saw the acknowledgement in his face as a feeling of terror started to dawn on her. "That device…. what does it do?"

He licked his lips. "He put the syringes or the dosages inside your arm. Like an implant." He extended the device out to her. "He wasn't going to tell you. Told us both not to. The drugs…"

"They're inside us?" Bec was horrified looking at both her arms uncertain of which one the Doctor used rubbing them both for signs of the procedure. "He can drug us whenever he wants?" She swallowed. Whatever terror she was feeling before in the Doctor's presence was now amplified.

"But… I think it's alright," Mickey said. "I think this will turn them off." He indicated to the device.

Cathryn only collapsed in a chair, dropping her head into her hands. "Which will tell him that we know. Shutting them down early. We can't risk that until…." Her voice trailed thinking of Pete's World.

"Until?" Mickey asked. The girls looked at each other before finally nodding in agreement. It seemed obvious that Mickey already took a risk in simply taking the device from the medbay; an act that demonstrated he could be trusted and that he simply wouldn't report what they said to Rose. No. He had done this without either of their knowledge and stayed as a vigilant guard while they slept. Cathryn looked down at her bag before removing her iPad. One piece of equipment that survived to this dimension.

"You trusted us to tell us this," Cathryn started. "So, we're going to fully trust you." She let out a breath before speaking. "Mickey, he says we're his family because of things we know. He said ancestral memory being a Time Lord trait. He started giving us injections."

"He said he could smell you," Mickey remembered. "But ancestral memory. You both know things. Things about him and about us. Well, Rose and I."

"Right. There's particles on us from the void. It's the stuff being the dimensional walls, created by the time war. From when he destroyed his own world." She explained. "We had to go through it to get to this dimension and whatever likely caused the rift exposed us to some temporal energy. He can smell artron energy for one thing and the hormone that triggers adrenaline in humans…." Her voice trailed. "The adrenaline. Should of thought of it before but…." She sighed. "He can pick up both those scents."

"But how do you know this?" Mickey asked, thinking about the visit to the museum. If the girls were hiding nearby, surely they would have been anxious to trigger an adrenaline reaction but the Doctor was quick to assert a family connection.

"Because in our dimension, the Doctor, you, Rose and all of this was just a television show." Bec gestured to her friend's iPad. "I deleted all the apps from mine related to Doctor Who but-"

"You're joking." Mickey stared at them both before he burst into a fit of laughter. "A telly show. That's it. That's the mystery?"

"I still have my book I bought on my kindle application about Dr. Who right here." Cathryn opened it carefully, bringing up a page to show information about the Doctor's ninth regeneration. It had pictures of each Doctor as well as every companion that travelled alongside him. She still had to be careful in what she showed him, not wishing to cause a paradox. "This is one source. Back in our reality, there's tons of information about it on the internet."

"Oh, now this is wicked." Mickey was getting excited. "So the whole time, his highness was wrong? You don't sense time or know the future? We're just actors playing a story on a show?" He was shaking his head, wishing he had found out sooner. He would love to knock the Doctor down a peg or two. He furrowed his brow. "But you didn't tell him." He looked at them both, noticing their expressions. "He wouldn't believe you or…"

"Or worse," Cathryn muttered. If there was a way back home with the dimensional jumpers, she didn't want knowledge of her universe getting into the wrong hands. And right now, the Doctor seemed like the wrong hands. Telling him it was a television show… she could only shudder at what he might do if by some rare instance he came in pursuit. What would he do to her family and friends? Potentially so many people at home could be put at risk. It was a horrible scenario, just to consider him, not to mention the worse elements of the universe like the Master finding out. She took a sip from the tea cup that was placed in front of her in an attempt to calm her rattled nerves. So far, it wasn't working.

"But, hold on," Mickey said, looking at the picture again. "Who are they?" He was looking at the companion chapter and pointed at the pictures of Martha and Donna.

Bec and Cathryn exchanged another glance. It was one thing to tell the young man that their knowledge of the Doctor and his life was a tale of fiction in their world, but could they risk telling him about the future?

"Ahh..." Bec began, trying to find a way to answer without telling too much. "The Doctor, Time Lords, they live a long time. Hundreds, thousands of years. You and Rose won't travel with him forever," she explained, deliberately putting two separate truths together so he wouldn't realise how imminent the end was coming for himself and the blonde Londoner.

"What about you two?" he asked in concern.

Cathryn swallowed and shook her head. "He's wrong. We're not Time Lord. We're not his..." She shook her head again. "There have been other instances of humans being infected by Time Lord biodata. They did this during the Time War. Experimentation on humans and other species. They were called Scions of Gallifrey, if they succeeded and that's a big if. The risk involved…..there's a good chance it won't work at all." She wanted to be clear. Mickey only looked at them with a mixture of shock and disgust.

"And what happens if it doesn't..?" Bec asked, not having heard about this before. Cathryn met her eyes sadly, shaking her head a third time. Bec immediately turned away to refresh her tea. The brunette took a deep breath. It had only been a few days yet. _If_ they got away, they still had a chance of reversing the damage.

Rose chose that moment the join them in the kitchen, still looking a little groggy as she woke up. She stumbled over to the pot of tea, needing something to kick her body into gear. "Thanks Cathryn," she muttered gratefully, he voice still heavy with sleep.

"Actually, Mickey made it," Cathryn corrected smugly, proud of her friend and cross that Rose and the Doctor seemed oblivious to his worth.

"Sorry?" Rose asked, turning blearily on the spot.

"Yeah," Mickey agreed. "Not so useless am I."

"I don't think you're useless," Rose defended. "I never said that."

"Maybe you didn't have to," he muttered. "So, where's the Doctor. Why you not with him?" He posed it as a challenge but he wanted to be sure that the Time Lord in question hadn't been lurking nearby or just behind the door. Besides, Rose had walked in with his overcoat draped over one arm.

"He's workin' in the transpower room. Said the regulation of power wasn't being distributed at max quantities or somethin'." Rose frowned. Truth be told, the Doctor deferred coming into the kitchen, saying he needed time before he spoke to either of his granddaughters. Meanwhile, it left Rose with a somewhat tedious task of removing a chocolate stain from the coat he treasured. Having her own experience when it was just her mum and herself, she pulled a bottle of vinegar from the shelf, mixing it with regular dish soap to use as an active stain solvent.

Bec stared thoughtfully at the coat in Rose's hands. This was just the sort of opportunity she could use.

"Rose, I've been meaning to ask," she began offhandedly. "When we first met you and the Doctor, he had that badge or licence thing, saying he was from Health and Safety, or whatever it was. Does he have lots of those badges? For other agencies?"

"Oh, no," Rose said, shooting the woman a grin. "He's got this psychic paper. People look at it and see what he wants them to. Hang on, it should be..." She started searching through the pockets until she victoriously pull out the black wallet. "Ah-ha! Here we go! Here, take a look," she offered, holding it out for Bec to take.

She took it curiously, barking with laughter when she opened it up. There was an ID visible with a profile photo of Rose posing like a member of Charlie's Angels she showed it to Cathryn so she too could read the words

 _Rose Tyler_

 _Super awesome and_

 _time traveler extrordinaire!_

The girls glanced up as the Londoner who shot them her cheeky tongue in teeth green before turning back to the stains on the coat. "'S a bit of fun. His psychic paper. Can't let your mind wander when you use it. Jack Harkness was always lettin' his concentration drift."

Bec could only look at the item in her hands. "Do you think I could try it?" She asked Rose, who had gone back to work at the stain.

"Go right on." Rose encouraged. "The Doctor's not needin' it at the moment. Can't see why he would mind. You can test it on Cathryn and Mickey."

Bec concentrated firmly on a few words in her head, before holding up the small wallet for Cathryn to see.

"Yes," her friend answered, offering a slight grin over her tea as Bec flashed the words 'Does this work?' to Mickey and Cathryn.

"It's pretty cool," Bec commented happily, flipping it over to have another look at it. Again she concentrated for a moment and was rewarded with the words, 'Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too?' printed as she'd seen in _Short Circuit_.

She giggled as the writing seemed to swirl in front of her before the displaying image was one she desired. A stick man with his arm raised as if he was waving. She thought of those books that would have like pictures in the bottom corner, where, when you flicked the pages, the pictures would appear to move. After a moment, her stick man began to move and flicker like in those books, and she showed Cathryn the waving man.

The brunette let out a giggle at the amusing photo. "Do something else," she demanded, clasping her hands together.

"Like what?" Bec inquired.

"Oh, I don't know…." Cathryn said with a mysterious smile. "See if you can pretend you're an agent with the FBI." She nodded, raising her eyebrows. "And you have to act the part too. No one at the FBI has a sense of humor they are aware of."

"Alright. FBI." Bec responded. "Let's see how this goes." She focused hard, before flipping open the wallet. "Agent Edwards, FBI." Bec said sternly, channeling her inner agent K. "With no sense of humor, I'm aware of."

Cathryn shook her head and Mickey chortled. "No, you had that extra line appear. Just think FBI." She was quite certain the agency didn't have as a slogan that they didn't have a sense of humor.

Bec took a deep breath. "How's this?" She flipped it open again. "Rebecca Edwards, FBI."

Now the brunette nodded. "Looks good. Mickey?"

"Definitely authentic," Mickey agreed.

"Here Cathryn." Bec passed her the psychic paper. "You give it a go."

The brunette looked at the thin wallet in her hands, pausing in deep thought before finally opening the wallet. Bec looked at it, raising her eyebrows. There was a picture of a raven flying across the page as the words seemed to write themselves in gothic script.

' _Quoth the Raven, nevermore.'_

"Well, that's just a little morbid." Bec muttered, shaking her head remembering the rendition of the poem in a Simpsons _Tree House of Horror_ episode.

Cathryn shrugged. "It's one of my favorite poems."

"No, 's a good start," Rose encouraged. "I love that poem." The blond paused from her scrubbing. "Now let me see you tell me that you're a member of Scotland Yard." She gave a little laugh. "A police officer in a police box, yeah."

Cathryn sighed, concentrating hard on that image in her mind before opening the wallet again. "Cathryn Stuart, Scotland Yard."

"Didn't know the Scotland Yard decorated their badges with unicorns around the frame," Mickey chided and Cathryn pressed her lips together. "Sorry, I was thinking about my niece. She loved unicorns and…. let me try this again."

It took a few tries each for them to get the proper hang of it, to not let their distracting thoughts mar the identification. All in all, both girls were alleviated they had a chance to practice. To be certain, it appeared easier than it actually was.

"Why don' I make breakfast?" Rose suggested. She was pulling out eggs and sausages along with toast. "Probably are hungry after being stuck in France."

Bec was nodding, sitting at the table, her hands clasped around her tea. Breakfast did sound good right about now. Cathryn slowly rose to her feet to assist Rose in the preparations as Mickey started to put on a pot of coffee.

That was when it happened. One minute, they were cooking a meal, chatting casually and then suddenly, all the lights, every single one went off, leaving them in pitch blackness. They couldn't see. Cathryn could hear everyone cry out in panic at the sudden shock. Bec immediately pulled her phone out of her pocket, flicking on the torch function with the camera flash, shining the bright little light at the roof to provide a faint light in the room.

"What's going on?" Mickey demanded. "Are we in trouble? Did someone attack the TARDIS?"

"I don't know," Rose said quietly, panic clear in her tone. "We need to find the Doctor. Maybe whatever he was working on. A mechanical issue."

"No," the Doctor suddenly interrupted from behind them, having sprinted to the others to check their safety immediately when the ship lost power. "Repairs were going fine. It's not mechanical."

Cathryn took hold of Bec's hand, having to feel for it slightly in the gloom. They both knew precisely what was occurring but even at the emergence of these events, the ones they had been waiting for, they could feel their hearts pounding in their chest and could once more feel the loss of warmth they now attributed to the presence of the TARDIS.

"Doctor, what happened?" she demanded.

"Is everyone alright?" he asked first. "Rose, Mickey…" He paused, glancing at his girls. Even at this distance, he felt the anger and fear surging through the bond. "Cathryn? Bec?"

"We're fine. Just…" Mickey inhaled deeply. "Yeah. We're all okay."

"The TARDIS," the Doctor mourned. "She dead. Just…." The grief was heavy in his voice.

"You can fix it, yeah?" Rose asked.

"Nothing to fix. She's perished. The last TARDIS of the universe extinct." His voice was resolute. The five passengers slowly made their way to the console room with the Doctor carefully leading the way.

"But we can get help?" Rose pressed. Cathryn grimaced, holding tightly onto Bec's hand. This was it. Whatever makings or chances their plan had, this was the one possibility they could use to have it come to fruition.

"Where from?" the Doctor asked bleakly.

"Well, we've landed. We've got to be somewhere," Rose insisted.

The ancient Time Lord shook his head. "We fell out of the vortex, through the void, into nothingness. We're in some sort of no place. The silent realm. The lost dimension." His tone was a miserable one. They were lost and trapped in the void forever. It was only a matter of time before the ship and they were destroyed by the nothingness. At least they would have some limited protection while the shell of the TARDIS protected them, shutting the emptiness out.

Before anyone could stop him, Mickey opened the door. His eyes widened at what he saw before he turned back to his fellow companions. "The lost dimension," he repeated. "Otherwise known as London."

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 **Authors' note:**

 **Here we go! Into the eagerly anticipated 'Pete's World.'**

… **well…** _ **We've**_ **been eagerly anticipating it! :-D**

 **As I said last time, we've caught up to where we are writing. We'll do our best to get each chapter to you as soon as we can, but I can no longer offer a definitive update schedule.**

 **Thanks again to our friends Almadynis Rayne, Fan Fictional Authoress, and LovelyAmber Light.**

 **Also, please have a read of our little Halloween story,** _ **Time Warp.**_ **The first of three chapters has been loaded on emptyvoices profile.**

 **s/11586077/1/Time-Warp**

 **Tootles! *waves***

 _ **azaadin & emptyvoices**_


	11. Rags to Riches

**Note: We are very sorry for the delay but life and its many intricacies has been a pivotal factor in our lives. Thank you all for your patience.**

 **azaadin & emptyvoices**

 **Chapter 11: Rags to Riches**

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Rose and the Doctor followed Mickey out of the time ship. But Bec was simply looking at Cathryn, noticing the lack of the TARDIS in her mind, already missing the warmth of its presence. She briefly frowned at her friend wondering if despite the circumstances, whether she felt the same way. Cathryn nodded, feeling the ship's absence acutely, reminded of how she felt in France. A part of her was empty; simply alone. It felt wrong. Bec reached out, instinctively taking her friend's hand.

The Doctor turned back to look at his children, sensing how they comforted each other. As hard as the transition was on them, he was grateful he could feel the compassion they shared. It gave him hope. Maybe he'd lost his ship, his oldest friend, but he still had his family. They were alive, and if he had anything to say about it, that was how they'd remain.

The Time Lord looked up at the sky, noticing the problem. Not only was the color slightly skewed, something he could tell by his strengthened vision, the other differences were startling. He winced, feeling how even time felt wrong here. A various degree faster. The blimps only confirmed what his senses told him. They were in grave danger. This was another universe. And they weren't supposed to be here. It was one more sensation added to the loss of his ship.

The Doctor hoped the accelerated temporal movement of this universe wouldn't play havoc with his children's development. Thank Rassilon he'd given them intravenous implants before the TARDIS lost power. He might still have a few syringes in his pocket. But even if he'd managed to find everything he needed to make more, he had no idea if the organic components of this universe would react the right way. He knew there was no way home. They were stuck here. There was no way for him to get access to what he needed to help his children. If his girls hadn't warned him ahead of time, he never would have come up with the idea of using intravenous solutions. Chances were they'd be dead within days. The Time Lord shuddered at the thought.

He glanced back at Bec and Cathryn, remembering what they'd told him. _How did they know?_ How had they so accurately predicted what would happen to his TARDIS? How could they be such powerful visionaries when they were still so underdeveloped? The Doctor turned his attention back to his companions. Whatever the reasons, they were here now, and he needed to start focusing on their survival.

"So, this is London?" The Doctor had interrupted Mickey's monologue who was chatting while looking at a discarded newspaper. _So much for being stuck in the void_ , Mickey thought.He remembered Bec and Cathryn mentioning it in the kitchen. He smirked internally to himself. It appeared as though they travelled only a few days ahead in the future. _So much for being a Time Lord_ , He thought.

"Yep," he confirmed, still flicking through the paper. Bec and Cathryn stepped out of the TARDIS while Mickey was speaking.

"Your city?" continued the alien.

"That's the one," answered Mickey, finally happy to prove the Doctor wrong.

"Just as you left it?"

"Bang on."

The ancient Gallifreyan wondered how long it was going to take for Mickey, the Idiot to realize the obvious. "And that includes the zeppelins?" He wondered if the boy would finally get it.

Rose and Mickey looked up.

"What the hell?" Mickey called out, wondering if this was what Bec and Cathryn had been talking about.

"Parallel reality," Bec muttered. "It's not yours," She managed to tell Mickey. "And not ours." Her last few words were faint, but Cathryn heard her and squeezed her hand knowingly.

The Doctor merely squinted and he exhaled briefly. Were his girls' senses so acute that they were able to discern such distinctions between realities this early in their transition? Still, it did alleviate him greatly. He wouldn't have to worry about them running off under the misconception they had been returned to their own universe to find their loved ones since they knew already this wasn't their home. It was one less thing he had to worry about from the burdens weighing heavily on his conscience.

"It's beautiful," Rose stated.

But the Doctor and Mickey weren't listening. They were looking back at the girls. Mickey was staring at them, already deciding he'd do whatever it took to help them get away, while the Doctor was looking at them because of the strong shift in their emotions, powerful enough to echo clearly through the fledgling Bond to him. Both girls were looking up at the sky, staring at the zeppelins, sending relief flooding through the family link. The joy he was picking up was almost as strong as their anger had been. The Doctor glanced at Rose before looking up at the blimps himself. What was it that the women in his life that they found so appealing about zeppelins? Although, he considered, if his girls were happy here, if this was an environment that were pleased to be in, were he could work on building their relationships, their family, then maybe being stuck in this dimension wouldn't be so bad. He just wished it wasn't so dangerous.

"We should find shelter," the Doctor spoke up. "Then we'll need to begin creating identifications and histories if we're going to incorporate ourselves into this world's society. We'll need to be careful not to affect their time lines, but..."

Bec's stomach plunged and her heart leapt into her throat at the Doctor's wrong words. She didn't know what she and Cathryn had done to make the Doctor's reaction to this universe so different from the show, but she wasn't going to stand there and watch their plans fall apart. If they were going to get away from the Time Lord, he needed to go home. Besides, he was needed there, "The TARDIS isn't dead," she said quickly, speaking through the lump in her throat.

"How do you mean?" The Doctor glanced back and forth between Bec and his faithful ship.

"There's a little piece of her, a little light that's still there," Cathryn explained, agreeing with Bec's understanding of the situation. From her perspective, he already thought they had precognition. It was better than the alternative. Better than him knowing there was a dimension where his life was a television show. Although, she'd prefer not to let him continue in a belief that was ultimately false, one thought process was better than the other. They'd tried to tell him their knowledge was nothing but a few stories before in the dimension of their origin but that explanation didn't seem to hold any weight, based on the way he'd responded to them in France. _Semantics_ , she thought. Besides, they were in Pete's World now. If all went well, and with Mickey on their side, their time with the Doctor would soon be drawing to a close.

" _You can sense that?!_ " The Time Lord raced back into his TARDIS before either girl could answer. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver, and began searching. If his girls were right, they might be able to go home. And if they were sharing that information, it was a good sign they were starting to warm up to him. They wanted to go home too.

Rose followed behind wanting to assist him despite her curiosity of this 'other' London with its sky full of zeppelins. Besides, the Doctor could better explain what had happened while they attempted to fix the TARDIS, even if he ended up doing most of the work.

The two girls lingered just outside with Mickey but the Doctor wasn't too concerned, not after seeing their desire to return home by their helping him. Also, with the implants installed, he had a constant signal regularly transmitted to his screwdriver updating him of their location in relation to him and, if the situation require it, he could deliver a dose of sedative at just a press of the button. He would know if they wandered too far partially through the bond and the status of the implants.

"Nice view of the Thames right over there, isn't it?" Mickey said to them with a gesture and a subtle though the Doctor had returned to his ship, he decided discretion was still essential, and the three of them needed to talk. He might not be Time Lord but, given what they told him, he knew they had seen this coming. Why they had finally now chosen to confide in him.

"It's lovely." Cathryn started to follow Mickey to the railing with Bec just behind her. She always did love looking at the water. It delivered a sort of tranquility despite life's discordant danger and its series of ups and downs. Yes, life was treacherous but the sea was often so steady barring any storms. It brought a singular contrast of flowing calm as the current continued to shift down the Thames to the open ocean.

"Not too far, you three," the Doctor called out from the console room. Now, he had his granddaughters and two companions to care for. "While I'm looking at the TARDIS, no wandering off." He was at the door. "It's very dangerous. We have no idea what's out there."

"We're just looking at the water." Cathryn's tone became emotionless. "That against some high and mighty Time Lord rule?"

The Doctor frowned and sighed, rubbing his temples at Cathryn's sarcasm. _The water_ , he thought as he rocked back on his heels, feeling the underlying sense of bitterness coursing through Cathryn. He remembered how he told himself that he needed to fix things between himself and his granddaughters. The dire nature considering how things had fallen due to their outright fear. "The water is fine," he said finally. Relief became prominent between his girls through the bond, surprising him slightly that such a small dispensation elicited such a strong response. Maybe that was it. Freedom as Rose had mentioned before. His granddaughters needed little freedoms to stretch their legs and, certainly, having some distance to look at the parallel world's Thames could do little harm. Besides, he had a tedious task ahead of him. He turned back to the console room and began the process of lifting up floor panels to access the circuitous layers of cables underneath.

 _A whole lot of work to do._ He exhaled briefly as he, with a bit of Rose's help started to look for the spark his granddaughters had mentioned had thankfully pointed him towards.

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The crowds of pedestrians near the railing and the many barges passing gave Cathryn a sense of nostalgia. Possibly a faint reminder of those pleasures in life when she had taken a luxury cruise. Even a barge sailing past, marked a sensation of longing. The need to be onboard and freed from the circumstances surrounding her. She gripped the bar so tightly, her hand hurt while leaning far overhead, smelling the water as it churned just beneath her.

"What are you thinking about?" Mickey asked.

"Just….well, this parallel world I guess….and…." she said softly. The noise in the proximity should cover their words and the Doctor deeply buried in his work in the TARDIS, there was no way he could hear them now. _Yes, we're safe. Enough time to tell him this._ "Seeing my family." She knew this wasn't her universe but symbolically it almost represented a gateway back to her reality considering the accomplishment they would make in dimensional jumpers. She held tightly on to the iron railing in dear hope. "It looks different from when I was in London before." She paused. "Our London." She bit her lip, never thinking that one version of reality could vary so much from the other but… she hesitated seeing the newspaper in Mickey's hand. He had been looking at it with interest.

"We're really in another universe," he clarified. "But…" He grimaced in terms of sympathy. "It isn't yours, is it?" He didn't need them to answer, the truth was evident on their faces. "Dates about the same as when we left London after… the medbay..." He cleared his throat. It wasn't too long ago when Mickey asked to come onboard the TARDIS and the girls were dragged along as unwilling participants. "I mean, around the same time, that's all."

"Yeah," Cathryn said thoughtfully. "Visited here sometime back…." She was still grappling the differences but shrugged it aside. "That's when I visited here in our world…that month and year but….."She frowned, looking at the buildings with the House of Parliament just across the water. It looked ever so slightly skewed and the color a shade or two distant. "Weird. It even smells…I don't know. Does it smell off to you?" she asked Bec and Mickey.

"Not really," Mickey admitted. "Sorry." He was disappointed. Once he heard that this wasn't his original reality, he had hoped fate would have seen the girls back to theirs. But, then strangely from their expressions, they seemed to have anticipated this misadventure, almost relished it. He wondered if it was also a part of the show they had been talking to him about especially with the book Cathryn had shown him.

Bec swallowed, nodding, knowing precisely what her friend was feeling. The lingering scent was slightly odd but she couldn't put her finger on it. Still, she tried to concentrate to the task at hand. "This has to work." She paused. "No, it will work and when the Doctor goes back to his universe…."

"So, that was your plan." Mickey smirked, grasping onto the notion the girls were formulating. He wasn't the idiot after all. In fact, he had insider knowledge. He knew something the Doctor didn't. The girls had pointed out the fact the TARDIS wasn't fully dead for a reason and the only reason why they hadn't told him about ending up here…. he placed his hands into the pockets of his jacket. _They were going to. We were interrupted when we landed here._ He glanced around this new version of London, thinking of the concept of parallel worlds. _It's brilliant. Perfect place for them to hide._

"Yes," Cathryn agreed. "Yes, this was our entire plan. If we get away, he won't feel us through that Bond he made and when he returns to his dimension, the Bond will sever." She decided to leave out that it could be a fate worse than death. Considering the Bond was new, she didn't know if such consequences were necessarily factual.

"What about me?" the young man asked in confusion. "How do I fit in? Can't I help?"

"You're the most important person in our entire strategy." The brunette clasped his arm. "You have the device to deactivate our implants and…" She breathed deeply. "Well, Mickey, about your Gran…"

"What?" Mickey was guarded. Maybe he wouldn't like this newest revelation. His Gran had died after all in a preventable accident he should have fixed. He had berated himself ever since he had lost her.

"A version of your grandmother still lives here. She's not the same Gran that you knew…. Mickey, no one can replace her, but the gran here, she's very much the same." Cathryn pursed her lips. She hoped she wasn't adjusting with the timeline too severely in telling Mickey this. Still, his Gran was going to see him regardless of their advice.

Bec spoke quietly. "We may be asking a lot. What we want to ask you to do is to stop travelling on the TARDIS. Settle down here. We know it's not fully your home but with your Gran here, it will help. And then there's the three of us. We can make a go of it here."

He suddenly swept them in an embrace. "Are you kidding? You're telling me my Gran is here and you both are going to stay. Course, I'll stay and help." He nodded. "We still need a plan."

Bec glanced at all the zeppelins flying overhead. "You need to go see your Gran. You'll meet your counterpart and his friends. Don't worry. They're good people once you get to know them. Then if you can, you need to help locate a ride for us out of the city. We'll contact you as soon as the Doctor is gone. We'll-"

"Bec, your phone." Cathryn muttered. She had used her sonic to adjust it into super phone under the Doctor's instruction back when he'd first given them their own screwdrivers. Bec slowly nodded and understood while handing it to Mickey. "Text us only on that or call when you are absolutely assured you are not being overheard."

"I'll turn mine on silent, just in case," Cathryn said to him.

"What do you mean 'counterpart'?" Mickey interrupted, thinking hard.

"Well," Bec began nervously. She didn't know how much they could safely tell him without risking the events that were to come. Mickey was very critical. 'Mickey the Idiot', who hacks the Cybus Industries computer for the code to the emotional inhibitor. We can't risk changing it. Too many people's lives were at risk. She glance at Cathryn. "I don't know how much we should say. Every little thing, even us-" she gestured between herself and her American friend "-being here changes things. Something is coming, and..." she broke off.

"Something bad," Mickey completed, taking in their serious demeanors.

"Something very bad," Bec agreed softly, her heart suddenly turning towards all the people who would suffer. Those who would walk like lambs to the slaughterhouse to be converted into monsters, those who lost loved ones to the factory. She suddenly remembered the bride that the Doctor and Mrs Moore would speak to, after her emotional inhibitor chip had been disabled, as she asked after her fiancé, Garath. So many people and families would suffer, so much pain. And yet, she couldn't quite bring the scene to memory properly, couldn't remember the bride's name, like it had never happened.

She shook her head, trying to pull out of her grief. There wasn't any way to stop it. Everything was already in place, and no one would listen to them if they told them to take their ear buds out. And if they changed things too much, the Doctor might not be able to save everyone anymore. No, they couldn't change events and risk something worse happening. In fact, the had to make sure they got away from the Doctor to protect all those he would one day save.

"If it's so bad, and you know it's coming, can't you stop it from happening?" the young man asked. "We could tell the Doctor. If anyone can think of a way out..." He slowly broke off as the two women sadly shook their heads at him.

Bec glanced nervously at Cathryn. "I already might have said too much," she admitted nervously, thinking of what she had said in France about him just being a story. She doubted he would believe them, but still worried at her words. She kept thinking about what Nine had thought after Lilly had told him he was only a story, a character on a TV show. She couldn't help but hope with some certainty that this Doctor would be the same, that he couldn't believe that they weren't precognitive in favour of the truth. "We can't risk saying anymore." She considered _Living Fiction_ , where the Doctor _had_ believed that in Laura and Honor's reality his life was just entertainment. He had explained, as he destroyed any evidence of their origin, that if anyone learned the truth about their universe, that it was peopled by humans with such a powerful ability, many might try to break across the void to enslave the humans of their home, selling them off to the highest bidder, not to mention risking both universes as they punctured holes between them. No, they couldn't risk saying more, and Bec hoped her angry words hadn't been too much.

"We can't change it," Cathryn clarified to Micky. "We can't. We might make it worse. But if things go as they should, you'll be happy here, Mickey."

"So, it can't be avoided." Mickey looked at the two nervously. They hadn't deceived him before and often spoke up for him. His mind strayed to that Kindle book that Cathryn had showed him. A sketch of him was displayed next to Rose's picture as part of the Doctor's retinue of companions. _And this is where I leave…_ He thought to himself. The two talked about staying on a specific predisposed plan of him going to his grandmother. His stomach clenched considering the importance they laid upon him, what if he failed? His anxiety was evident. The girls were confident he wouldn't fail but he felt uneasy at the prospect knowing very well that he still might let everyone down.

Cathryn glanced at Bec. "It's like tossing a pebble into a still pond. There are ripples. Toss more stones, those ripples becomes waves."

"Or perhaps like lighting a match right next to a kerosene tank." Bec shook her head. "We can't risk it. Even trying to save a life…." She swallowed thinking of Jackie's dimensional duplicate here. She knew on the show she was converted to a Cyberman and, distantly, she could recall the off screen screaming as the procedure was done. None of that matched the agony when Jackie realised that her brain had been transplanted into a metal suit. When she realised what she was. A machine that tried to cry, that wanted to cry only to beg for death. _Could I…_ She thought of how Rose might react, knowing she would be in the proximity but unable to intervene.

Cathryn squeezed her hand and looked at her meaningfully in the eyes. The word was clear in the brunette's gaze. _No._ Of course it was no. It was too risky. Trying to save one life might mean ten others could perish. The thread they were tip toeing along was difficult as it was.

"Mickey, we would save them if we could but…" Her voice trailed. "It's….yes, people will die. Maybe hundreds. But if we changed anything critical, thousands or millions could die." Cathryn swallowed. "You'll be fine as long as you go to her house. Then, you'll know what to do. But just head there. The rest will be clear."

"Alright," he finally acknowledged. "Fine. But I'll be checking in so don't forget about me." Pulling the medical device he had seen the Doctor use to activate their implants from his jacket, he held it out to Bec who quickly took it, secreting it inside her own coat while chortling at Mickey's statement.

Cathryn too gave a small laugh. "Yeah, that'll happen." Bec ducked her head down. "And when this is over…"

"Already planning our next visit?" The Doctor had only overheard their last two remarks and was encouraged by it. Maybe now, they were starting to find some excitement in travelling after the shock they endured in the 18th Century. He knew he could do with a bit of actual holiday especially after losing Reinette. _Her letters to the girls…._ he inhaled through his nose. _No._ He decided. Best to wait for the TARDIS to fully recharge and now that he secured their way back in just under twenty three hours and forty two minutes, they might try to enjoy themselves.

"Where's Rose?" he asked. "Thought you three would be keeping an eye out for her."

 _It's already wrong_ , Bec thought. She knew the Doctor had asked Mickey to keep an eye on Rose while he was working in the TARDIS but Mickey stayed with Cathryn and Bec. She tensed at this slight deviation.

"Oh, it's Rose. She's all right," Mickey replied.

"She goes wandering off." The Doctor sounded particularly annoyed. "Parallel world, it's like a gingerbread house. All those temptations calling out."

"But nothing to tempt the rest of us?" He momentarily froze as Cathryn and Bec gave him meaningful glances. "I mean, kind of interesting. Don't you think? Traffic lights could be blue. Tony Blair never got elected. What else could change?"

Cathryn pondered how a parallel world could act as the 'gingerbread house' out of the Hansel and Gretel' story in Grimm's fairy tales. Then she considered it. The gingerbread house. A sugary, delicious confection that composed the entire home. _The Doctor's idea of heaven._ She thought wryly but grimaced. It wouldn't be a gingerbread house without a wicked witch inside.

The Doctor gave a calculated nod, giving a careful glance at his girl's arms where the syringes were implanted while checking his sonic discreetly. Still well within tolerance despite the additional stress of travelling to another reality. "A lot to think about but I can't worry about everything." He had plenty on his plate already. He wrestled one hand through his hair. "So…" He glanced over, an expression filled with relief as both Bec and Cathryn turned with him.

"There you are." He was making swift strides toward the blonde. "You alright?" His voice was filled with concern but for the moment Rose was silent. Her face downcast. "What, no applause? I fixed it. Twenty four hours, then we'll be flying back to reality? What is it?' Another step closer to Rose.

As those two huddled together, Cathryn, Bec and Mickey took a step back. Rose was holding out her phone, explaining the Cybus Network, which gave her direct internet access along with information telling her that her own counterpart didn't exist in this reality. This Pete and Jackie were rich and seemed to want for nothing. Not even children. Still Rose was caught in a sudden fervor. Cathryn recognized the look in the blonde's eyes. It was the same her actress counterpart tried to display for the television show back at home during the episode _Father's Day_. She wanted so badly to say good-bye to her father and the ninth Doctor permitted it while warning her that his death was a fixed event. But she was impetuous and the last second, pushed her father out of the way of the speeding car causing reapers to surge into their reality. Potentially sanitize the world, killing every living thing on it. Oh, how Rose did argue even when she was wrong. She had a stubborn streak and now…. Cathryn glanced at the sidewalk beneath her feet…. well, this discussion was considerably domestic. The two arguing like a newly involved couple having a small spat. If the situation wasn't so precarious, she might almost enjoy it.

"I just want to see him!" Rose said adamantly.

"I can't let you," the Doctor said, his voice firm.

 _Oh, of course. That will surely work,_ Bec thought, humming briefly to herself, her thoughts absently turning to her guitar back in the TARDIS as she tuned the quarrel out.

"You just said twenty four hours!"

"You can't become their daughter in less than twenty four hours. That's not the way it works." The Doctor looked at his companion in frustration. "Cathryn, Bec-"

"Rebecca." The other blond corrected, unwilling to budge on his use of her nickname.

He sighed. _This was starting out so well._ Pressing his lips together, the Doctor continued, rocking back on his heels. "Rebecca, tell her. Tell Rose that she can't become their child in the space of a day."

"Why not?" Cathryn asked as the Doctor turned on her with a look of shock.

Rose looked at her, eyes wide, a small smile playing on her lips. _She understands where I'm comin' from_ , she realized. _Sometimes the Doctor doesn't get it but Cathryn and Bec…_

" 'Why not?' " the Time Lord repeated with exasperation, abruptly cutting into Rose's thoughts. He made the phrase sound utterly foreign on his tongue.

"Yeah, I mean you initiated that Bond in less than a day. So why can't Rose become their daughter in less than a day?" Cathryn's voice was caustic. She was pointing out the Doctor's dreadful hypocrisy. One she thought in every inch he readily deserved.

"No, he's right," Bec pointed out, seemingly taking the Doctor's side to which he nodded in agreement. "Alternate universe. A gingerbread house, he said," she pointed out bitterly. "We're from an alternate universe and, look, the witch got us." She vaguely waved her hand in the Doctor direction, making her indictment clear.

He closed his eyes momentarily, pausing in himself, seeking the patience he needed with them. When he opened his eyes again, having deliberately set aside his girl's contributions to the argument in his mind, it was to see Rose slowly backing away. But before he could call out to her again, Mickey's voice piped up.

"Twenty four hours, yeah?" he asked, thinking over what Bec and Cathryn had told him. His Gran... If she was truly alive here, if he could see her again... He too began walking away from the Doctor, deliberately walking the other way, forcing the alien to make a choice, even though he knew what it would be.

"Where're you going?" the Time Lord called impatiently, frustrated at losing control of the situation more and more.

"Well, I can do what I want," Mickey called back defiantly. "You wanna come with?" he invited, glancing at his two newest friends.

Immediately Bec felt a surge of negative within her, as strong and unpleasant as the taste of bile surging at the back of her throat. She shook her head, absently noticing Cathryn do the same. The Doctor continued to argue with his companions as the two girls turned to each other, their fearful eyes admitting that they had both felt it, whatever _it_ was. They had never had any intention of going with Mickey anyway. They knew he had to do this on his own, and knew they wouldn't have the opportunity to escape unless they stayed with the Doctor for now, but that surge of negative, that compulsion to turn down Mickey's innocent but kind request... It felt unnatural.

They instinctively reached out and took each other's hand, needing the support of the other, but having no other way to offer it with the Doctor so near.

"Back here, twenty four hours!" the ancient alien was saying to Mickey once Bec properly tuned in again. "Come on," he directed in a softer tone to his girls, though his voice was adamant, brokering no room for argument, as he gestured after Rose.

The two numbly acquiesced, still feeling somehow shaken. It didn't take long for the three of them to catch up with the young blonde, as she had slowed down once she saw they were following after her.

"Rose, this isn't a good idea," he began softly when they reached her, his very words betraying his concession.

"No, I know they're not my mum and dad," Rose admitted. "I've already got a mum, another mum. I just want to see him."

The Doctor sighed to himself, trying to consider ways to convince Rose to listen to him. He briefly glanced back at his girls, whom were following very docilely, their eyes heavy and burdened. He regretted his use of the Bond. With Rose and Mickey pulling in different directions, each intent on chasing after the deliciously juicy poisoned apple, the thought of his granddaughters wandering out of his sight had caused him a moment of sheer panic which echoed through the Bond. He had gritted his teeth, bottling the emotion beneath the surface, forcing himself to think rationally, to find a logical way to convince his companions to heed him rather than being driven by their own emotional instincts, but his panic had spilled through the Bond, overpowering the peace, warmth and belonging that he unceasingly sent, comforting the dear little children of his family, and flooding them with his panicked refusal of Mickey's offer. He had kept his denial hidden from the sight as much as possible, only a hint of its depth splashing across his features, but his two children, still so young and naïve of the Bond, silently gave voice to his refusal for them to go with the young man.

He couldn't bear to think of the consequences if he lost track of them in this parallel universe, especially with them already reluctant to be in his company. The only consolation he could give himself if they were separated from him, was that the implants would keep them alive, maintaining their tenuous physiology, until he could find them once more, ever transmitting updates to him on the state of their health.

"Where do you think he's off to anyway?" he asked his companion, deliberately trying to steer to safer, less contentious, topics.

"His grandmother," Cathryn said, deliberately cutting off Rose as the Doctor paused merely to stare at her. Rose too gazed at the brunette at this impromptu revelation.

"What?" Cathryn shrugged. "He told us about her and… his Gran. He said she was amazing…." Her voice trailed. It wouldn't be long. Neither she nor Bec would have to defend themselves from adamant accusations of their visionary ability or any claims to ancestral knowledge. She took a deep breath, glancing at Bec. The lingering sensation of negative energy seemed to languish at the back of her mind. Lately, she had adopted a rather numbed and apathetic approach as a means to get her through each day and every hour so even the strong emotional surge was….unsettling. She glanced at Bec pondering whether she felt the same since she too had been taken from her own reality.

Rose gave a brief nod, the other girl's statement making sense. Lately the three had almost been as thick as thieves. "She's right. First place he would have gone. Mickey's mum couldn't cope with 'im and his dad only hung around a while but then, he just sorta wandered off." She swallowed, thinking about Mickey. How difficult it had been. It was one of the things they had in common. The absence of a parent. "He was brought up by his Gran." She looked at Cathryn and Bec. "And she was a great woman." A hint of tragedy echoed in Rose's voice. "But then she died. Jus' tripped and fell down the stairs. It was about five years ago now. I was still in school…." Her voice broke off. It was before she had to quit. To help her mum and certainly that took precedence. Pressing her tongue against her teeth, she starting blinking rapidly. Bec and Cathryn remained silent, consumed by their own separation. Their tragedies. The bleak pang of loss resonated in them all as they simply stood on a busy London sidewalk taking a moment to observe what their lives had become.

"I never knew." The Doctor seemed to have spent so much time arguing with the young man that he didn't attempt to pick apart Mickey's past. He only remembered distinctly, however, when Cathryn accused him of taking the young man for granted.

"Well, you never asked," Rose replied, shaking her head.

"And if you admit it, you just weren't that interested," Cathryn said under her breath. Bec was tempted to nudge her with her elbow. The Time Lord looked back at her. Clearly, he had heard her remark. His expression was filled with both indignation and just a bit of remorse.

"Neither one of you said," he offered. "If I knew-"

"If you knew…" Cathryn looked at him meaningfully. "What? You would stop calling him an idiot?" She and Bec exchanged glances. "Because we both know that is exactly what you think of him. You take him for granted. You always have."

Any defence the Doctor may have offered cooled on his lips as all the people walking on the street around them suddenly paused.

Bec had been intently listening out for the alarm that had played on the show, heralding the impending update, but it had never come, the people simply paused in their tracks as if by their own accord. _Lambs for the slaughter_ , she thought again, dropping her gaze away as she fought the sudden urge to cry. How many of these people would be dead or converted by this time tomorrow? She tried to push back the mental image that superimposed itself over the world around her that they were walking in the middle of a living graveyard with the dead standing around them. She instinctively reached for Cathryn's hand once more as the Doctor stepped closer to the living dead to inspect their earpieces.

Cathryn found the reality of the situation exceptionally chilling. She never once found any of the assortment of zombie movies appealing but in a sense that was what this was. A variation of zombies plugged into and dependent on a streaming media source, now frozen in their tracks. Some in mid pace with one foot still in the air. The wind soared through London giving them a reminder of the natural temperate climate, rustling their hair, and disturbing any illusion that they were merely statues rendered immobile to time.

"What're they all doing?" Rose asked in a hushed whisper.

"They stopped." The Doctor was simply observing their flashing earpods nestled quite firmly around their heads.

Cathryn turned from the frozen crowd to look at the Doctor, askance. "Well, thank you, Captain Obvious." She wrapped her hands around her arms wishing that Bec and herself could have simply gone with Mickey. It would have been far better than having to watch this horrid display. She released a brief shudder at the motionless people around her. "They stopped. Well, there you go. Never would have picked that up with out you." Sarcasm was dripping from her tone. Yes, they were here but neither had to be happy about it and she had a feeling. The pulse of negative energy that seemed to force an automated response in their minds…. _could that really be….?_ Or…no. Perhaps it was randomly generated by their own anxiety and nerves, which made it to appear so unnatural but the timing…she was worried and when she worried, her dismal attitude became a now necessary defense.

"Cathryn," Bec murmured softly, trying to calm the other. Unlike the brunette, the situation had her lowering her voice instead of raising it. The silence around them was unnatural and eerie. No voices pierced the air but their own. No footsteps echoed on the pavement. All sounds of the living bodies around them had disappeared. Even the distant sound of traffic had faded to the idle of engines.

"Sorry," she muttered to Bec, glancing at her friend. The Doctor was looking at her while taking a discreet glance down at his sonic. _The implants…._ Cathryn thought, pressing her lips together, meeting Bec's gaze. Her friend hadn't missed the Doctor's action despite the frozen people around them. Inside her pocket, Bec held onto the device, clutching it as a promise. That was their refuge. Once they were turned off….

The Time Lord sighed. The implants were functioning at peak efficiency regulating their hormones at optimal levels. Cathryn's attitude wasn't some malfunction or defect in his equipment. This was simply how she regarded him. He remembered Bec's terror when she faced him in the medbay. Cathryn too felt fear but at almost equal match to the sheer spite she radiated through the Bond. He winced briefly and tried to focus with the task at hand. _It was a little obvious_ , he admitted to himself. Perhaps, he had been around humans far too long. Rose was the one that told him to keep things simple but perhaps he had taken her comment too much too heart. They were his kin after all and by human standards, they didn't think themselves as children no matter the fact they were a mere fraction of his age.

"Right." The Doctor cleared his throat, pulling himself back on task as he stepped towards the nearest pedestrian. A woman with a newspaper in hand. He took a closer examination. "It's the earpieces. Bit like Bluetooth attachments but everyone's connected together…"

"'S on my phone." Rose was looking at her mobile. "It's automatic, look." To Cathryn's surprise, the blonde showed it to her as the Doctor continued to examine the woman on the street. "You went to school for media, yeah? Have you seen this? 'S downloadin'. Think they're all getting' this. News, international news, sports, weather…"

Cathryn glanced at the blonde's device, noticing that while a flip phone, it wasn't originally a smart phone until the Doctor had performed the upgrade. "May I….?" She asked Rose, taking the phone to peer at it. "Hmm, interdimensional mobile hotspot," she muttered.

"Wha..?" Rose asked.

"Phones operate on SIM cards depending on the country you're in. Each region is sort of unique. But he made it universal, I guess and gave it it's own hotspot. Its own wireless signal, which is connecting to the wireless cloud here…" Cathryn glanced above at the Zeppelins.

"You had this back at home?" Rose asked. "This wireless cloud?"

"Well, kind of." Cathryn struggled to explain. "No earbuds like these, but…well…" She grimaced remembering how people were at school, often with their iPod headphones always in their ears unless they were in class. But in that capacity, if the wireless network went down, it would be semi sheer calamity. "Well, not like this anyway. We had a limited data cloud to stream content and store information. We didn't download stuff like this and…" Her voice trailed, looking at the people about them, dependent on this variation of media streaming each day, as they suddenly broken out in laughter before continuing on with their day. _Was our reality really that different?_ She gave a repressed shudder.

"You lot," the Doctor muttered, having listened in, shaking his head. "You're obsessed. You'd do anything for the latest upgrade." He tried to keep his voice jovial and at the same time calm but Rose now appeared indignant.

"Oi! Not my lot. Different worlds remember?" This certainly wasn't Rose's reality nor was she a part of Bec's and Cathryn's.

"It's not so far off your world. This place is only parallel." He stepped back and took a swift glance over Cathryn's shoulder, seeing the source of the information stream. His eyes narrowed as he suddenly pulled the phone from her hand.

"Hey!" Cathryn yelped. "You couldn't even be bothered to ask? Oh, I forgot." She exhaled through her nose. "Rude. Rude but not ginger." Bec groaned softly in amused disappoint, wishing she'd been the one to say it first.

He gave Cathryn a swift glance. That was part of his conversation he had when he initially regenerated. How his girls were able to glean such knowledge was…. he closed his eyes briefly, stilling himself. Thinking momentarily, only to feel a meaningful jab in his arm. Rose. His eyes flew open. She was frowning at him in disapproval while giving him a pointed look at Cathryn and Bec. She disapproved of what he did too.

"Okay. Right. I'm sorry about that," he said swiftly. He would address Cathryn's remark at another time. Perhaps when he started a formal training regimen. Yes, that would be the most appropriate. The alien returned his gaze to the phone. "Oh, look at that. Cybus Industries, owners of just about every company in Britain, including Vitex. Mister Pete Tyler's very well connected." He looked down at his Rose and suddenly grinned. Perhaps meeting this world's Pete Tyler was a good idea after all. He held up his hands in a seeming placating gesture and extended the phone back to the girls to take. "So, okay. I give up. Let's get going and see him, shall we?" and he began walking it the random direction they had originally been moving, Rose falling into step beside him.

"Wait," Bec began nervously, as she and Cathryn followed after. "He's that rich, we can't just walk up to him in our daggy baggies, can we?" she asked, waving her hands down at her mismatched casual attire.

"It's never stopped me before," the Doctor commented, turning around and walking backwards momentarily to meet their eye before spinning on the spot again. He frowned to himself slightly once his face was turned away. He was learning to recognise that expression. It was they one they wore when they were debating what to say to him, when they were speaking based on knowledge they had somehow gleaned from the infinite vortex. Once they were safely back in their own universe, he would have to do some intensive training with them, lay down rules that they must not break. Until they more fully matured and understood their own time senses better, recognising what was and wasn't safe, they needed to err on the side of silence.

However, he had to admit to himself proudly, they innately were aware of the dangers their knowledge possessed. He had seen and could sense their reticence of him, but they had safely shared about his TARDIS being alive, when he hadn't been able to feel her presence at all. Perhaps their precognition made them more in tune with the laws of time than he had originally suspected, given their still developing Time Lord senses. He still needed to be careful, though, and their training would have to be a top priority once they got home.

"I just think, maybe we should stop at the shops or something, buy some better clothes," she finished, glancing at Cathryn. During their brief whispered conversations, they had decided it would be best for them to try to attend as guests rather than staff. Cathryn had been convincing, but she was a media student and used to relating with others on the level that would be required at Jackie's party. Bec wasn't sure she could pull it off.

"Okay," the Doctor agreed lightly, as though he hadn't thoroughly considered her timid request in the two seconds before answering. Rose had encouraged he give them patience and freedom, give them choices, and he could see no harm in their request. In fact, he considered, their desire to be involved in this adventure with him was a good thing. Despite how rocky things were, he still had chance to rebuild that trust with them, to have a proper relationship with his granddaughters, and, so long as they were safe, he would take whatever chance they gave him. "There are plenty of boutiques around here. Anything catch your eye?" he asked, gesturing expansively at the shops around them.

"February first," Rose murmured to the Doctor when she saw the sorts of stores the girls were interested in. "Mum's birthday. She did always like a party. I suppose, being rich here, she would throw the biggest one she could."

"Extravagance," the Doctor agreed lightly. "I wouldn't have thought her the type," he teased, causing Rose to playfully knock his shoulder.

"But, you don't think-" she began, but he gently cut her off again.

"Rose, they're not your parents. They're just total strangers who look like them."

"I know, I know that," she admitted, slightly lost in her thoughts. "I just... I wonder what might have been, you know?"

"Suppose," he said almost absently. "Suppose you had grown up in a rich family like theirs. You wouldn't be the Rose Tyler I know. You wouldn't have had to leave school to help your mum. You wouldn't have been working at Hendricks that night. You and I, we likely wouldn't have met."

They walked in silence for a few steps while that possibility sank in.

"How about you?" Rose asked softly. "I've got... people who look like family here. Maybe there are Time Lords out there too."

"No," he corrected, keeping his tone light. "Time Lords are said to be singularly transdimensional beings, meaning there aren't copies of us anywhere in other realities. One, uno, només. Of course, the Time Lords have been wrong before, but this world is only parallel. If there were parallel Time Lords this close to our universe, my people would have found them. I'd be able to sense them."

"But, Bec and Cathryn came from another universe," the girl from London argued.

The ghost of a grin brushed his lips as his eyes fixed on his children whom had wandered ahead and were glancing in the shop windows. "Their family, my children, fled the war. So many did. Some made it, but others wouldn't have. But, like us, their TARDIS' would have died. They would have had to adapt or die out. That's what their grandparents did. They would have had to become more human. Otherwise, any subsequent generations would simply have died, their Time Lord biology taking over the human part, but having no way to care for them. That's what's happening now," he added, nodding towards the girls. They glanced back towards him in front of a store window, the very picture of little children checking a grownup was in sight, ensuring they knew where their parent was, before slipping out of sight into the store. "I suppose this is the place," he told his companion, grinning widely.

Cathryn and Bec had checked the Doctor was nearby, but not out of a need to be reassured that they were being watched over, but to make sure he saw them ducking into the shop. With their intention to run away later in the evening, they didn't want to raise his concerns sooner, for him to tighten the leash he held them on.

"I'll need your help," Bec told her American friend as she led the way into a shop that seemed to have appropriate clothing. "I don't dress up very often, especially not 'professional party'."

"I can do that," Cathryn agreed. "Just start by looking for something you feel comfortable in and we'll go from there," she suggested. "But remember, flats," she added, thinking of all the running they would have to do later.

"Don't worry, I haven't worn heels in years," Bec agreed with a soft chuckle. "I don't think I'd know how to anymore."

She had tried to get away with a stylish suit pants combo, but her media friend had argued persuasively, explaining that they had to meet the dress code to gain entry as guests and that, at an event such as the one they were intending to crash, an evening gown would be required. Still, she helped Bec to find a suitable dress that would be appropriate for the party but still functional when the moment came for them to run. In the end she had settled on a dark green number with wide black leaves and flowers embroidered on it, almost giving the effect of the outer layer of the dress being lace only without as great a risk of the fabric catching. The loose sleeves stopped just above her elbows, and the skirt stopped just above the floor. She didn't think she had a hope of running in it, despite the skirt being loose enough to allow her legs plenty of movement, but Cathryn had already devised a solution with Bec adhered to.

"Look, I'm a tree!" she announced when she came out of the change room. She felt self-conscious in her chosen outfit, and had long ago learned from entertaining children that if she acted the clown she would feel less embarrassed when on the spot, because if people laughed at her, that was the intention rather than an unfortunate result. Cathryn was off choosing her own outfit, but Rose was there to appreciate her antics.

"Oh, this is gorgeous," the girl in question commented about another gown she found as she looked through the racks.

"Why don't you try it on?" Bec suggested with a small grin. She was feeling anxious, trying to account for the events taking place in the city around them, while also mentally preparing herself for their own flight, but that didn't mean she couldn't be kind to Rose during the few hours they had left to know her.

"Yeah, you think?" the Londoner asked with her cheeky grin before glancing back down at the dress in her hands. "I couldn't wear this, not with our life, all the running and fighting and eating chips, but just this once, eh?"

She swooped into the dressing room then came out a moment later wearing the gown she had found, looking like a waterfall of shimmering gold had washed over her and having somehow twisted her hair up as well for effect. "Well, how do I look?" she asked, posing stylishly before a lock of hair fell over her face and spoiled the effect. Bec, grinned at her, again seeing one of the reasons why she had so totally stolen the Time Lord's hearts, but before she spoke up, another voice cut in.

"Rose," the Doctor breathed. "You look..."

Bec grimaced and shied away from the pair, suddenly feeling like she was intruding and out of place.

"You look lovely," he said, stepping closer as Bec glanced around awkwardly looking for Cathryn, soon spotting her stepping from her own change cubicle.

The brunette kept it simple wearing a long, black A-line dress that only cinched in at her waist. With mid length sleeves, it only stooped slightly off the shoulder. Simple black flats with a recognized label as 'Easy Spirit' blended with her dress choice and allowed her a free range of movement. She couldn't risk being confined or tripped at a critical moment by a shoe. In addition, it concealed the leggings she hid underneath the dress quite nicely as Bec's dress had done for hers.

"Aren't we going to freeze?" Bec asked meaningfully, referring to the designated time when they both would choose to run.

"That is why we will both need nice wool coats." Cathryn replied. Wool insulated and did well for formal events. When they unzipped their dressed, they would wear their coats for sufficient protection from the elements. She knew Bec might still find it a bit chilly but it was the best they could do. They had to be quick. Although, there were some uncertainties. The show had Rose and the Doctor working as caterers in the kitchen. Then the conversation was focused primarily on Rose. The conversation she had with this dimension's version of Pete and Jackie Tyler. They didn't know precisely what the Doctor was doing while Rose would be chatting with her family except that at some point he would take advantage of an unguarded computer.

"You both ready, yeah?" Rose had entered the dressing room area likely at the Doctor's request and then briefly frowned analyzing her chosen attire. They were both wearing dark colors. Was yellow-gold correct if she was behaving the part of the media. "You sure what I'm wearing is right? If I'm the only one…" The blonde pressed her lips together, looking at herself in the mirror.

Bec and Cathryn glanced at each other. The reason they had chosen dark colors was for camouflage. They would tend to be less distinctive and therefore less memorable if there whereabouts were inquired about by any survivors. The thought alone made Cathryn's stomach churn. The last message they had from Mickey communicated briefly he was with the Preachers, the group that mistook him for his Ricky counterpart. She hoped he was convincing. They had to intercede in order to rescue the Doctor and Rose. But so many others….

"You look perfect, Rose." Cathryn managed. "It's just…call me morbid. Between my niece and myself, black has been one of our favorite colors." Well, that was sort of true. She was often taken to wear black and before she had found herself in this reality, Anna had just announced her new favorite color was black. However, that in itself was an ever changing litany. Two months prior, it was purple.

"Yes," Bec agreed. "It's good to stand out and make an impression." She looked at Cathryn for approval who gave a brief smile.

"And I do recall. Last party like this I was at, I wore burgundy." The media student sighed. "I just wasn't up to wearing a color tonight and felt like playing it safe."

 _Playing it safe_ , Cathryn thought. Black almost did radiate her emotions. She often felt that it took everything she had to keep herself from sinking. That she was in a state of perpetual grief. Perhaps she wasn't playing it safe as much as she was putting her state of mourning on display. She would play her part but all the while she was here, her grief and apathy would be her constant companion.

It was only when Rose turned to leave the dressing room did Cathryn speak quietly to her friend. "What about the psychic paper?" She was concerned. With the Doctor having it on his person from the minute they got to the door, how would they pry it away from him?

Bec gave her a subtle smile, trying to summon confidence she didn't necessarily feel. But she had thought this over and practiced for a reason. "Don't worry," the blonde assured Cathryn. "I have an idea. Bit of an idea," she quoted. _Don't dis the 'thing'_ , she added humorously in her head, thinking of the eleventh Doctor and the 'things' he had instead of 'plans'.

She adjusted the green folds of her dress to conceal the leggings she wore just underneath the long evening gown. Both girls wore sleeveless shirts underneath the bodice of their dress. Of course, it wasn't ideal but once they unzipped their dresses and donned their wool coats, it would give them semi adequate protection from the February chill while allowing them maneuverability their dresses denied them. The flats they chose were perfect for running. Cathryn advised Bec on the very styling of the shoe while looking professional was also highly versatile. She had worn the same shoes going to and fro from the Financial District back at home and often had run in the very same shoes. In the brunette's mind, she could leave nothing to chance.

Once again, she felt for the sonic in her purse as their dresses were paid for, the Doctor using sleight of hand and his own sonic to accomplish the task. Bec had refused to request hers back and Cathryn well understood standing on one's principle. They could share one. The psychic paper just needed to be their ultimate goal but what was Bec's idea to pry that precious device out of the Doctor's hands?

She was apt to find out when they left the hop and headed to Pete Tyler's glamorous home, far larger than what Rose was accustomed to back at the Powell Estates. Beautiful by all accounts. Rose had said all his little inventions had worked. He was an exceedingly wealthy man and Cathryn and Bec could tell the blonde took a certain pride even though this was _a_ Pete and not directly her father.

Still, Cathryn wondered how she might feel if she ran into the duplicate of her father, healthy and whole. Whether she would exercise constraint. What if Bec spotted her husband or children, especially the ones that passed away? Could they be in a place to be so judgmental? _No, we couldn't._ And Rose was young. Sometimes, Cathryn forgot how young Rose was. Not even twenty. When one got into their twenties, even in those years, you become more desensitized of jaded and in the midst of the struggle, you lost more of your innocence. Innocence. Is that why Cathryn was so hard on Rose? Did she want Rose to lose hers just as they had lost theirs? The various quandaries or possibilities lay heavily on her mind as the group finally made their departure from the store in search of transportation to take them the rest of their journey.

A taxi took the Doctor, Rose and the girls the rest of the journey to the party where muddled by their own thoughts. Bec and Cathryn chose to remain quiet.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Rose asked.

"Just a penny?" Bec responded, her reply between a joke and sarcasm.

"Well, what about a pound, yeah?" Rose smiled. "You two look very nice. Very professional." She glanced at Cathryn. "You said we'll be doing media something or other. I'll need advice."

"Rose," Cathryn took a deep breath. "You get along with people. You're kind and have a way with words. You can improvise however we were thinking of having you go in as a popular runway model."

"Really?" Rose flashed a tongue and cheek grin. "Me, a runway model. Who would have thought?"

"I would." The Doctor said. He glanced at Rose. "No one could take their eyes off of you."

No one could miss the distinct blush on Rose's cheeks and Cathryn squeezed her hand. "Just be careful. Always discreet in what you say. Keep it light."

"But if they don't recognize me…?"

"You're up and coming with the BMA modeling agency. Working with magazines but next year, you might participate in the Paris runway modeling event. That's a big deal with fashion designers from all over the world that take pictures. Lead to more jobs." Cathryn nodded. "You'll be fine. Plus, at the party, models are undefined. They won't know exactly who you are although they might pretend they do. I went to an Emmy's party. It was superficial. People faking they know you. So fake back in return. Any more in depth questions about upcoming photo shoots, say it would go against your contract to reveal."

Rose exhaled deeply. "Thank you." She said to them. "No, I mean it. So, what will my name me? Can't exactly use Rose Tyler."

"I have it!" Bec exclaimed with an excited but sly grin. "What about Billie Piper. I always liked the name and it sounds unusual. Mysterious. It's uh…." She paused. "A favorite name of mine."

Cathryn could barely suppress her own giggles. "Yes, it suits you. Strength through adversity. The willingness to try new things."

Finally, they arrived. The three donned their coats as they approached the spectacular mansion while a smartly dressed man asked for invitations from all those in line.

"Wait, can I do it?" Bec said, a faint glimmer of hope. "I was practicing before. I would like to see if I really have gotten the hang of it."

The Doctor was pulling out the psychic paper as he glanced at Bec. Inwardly he was pleased. Bec was definitely showing the aptitude to learning and he knew about the practice session, the girls had with Rose in the kitchen. It was another step, even if a small once to accept their heritage.

"You sure you don't mind, Cathryn?" he asked. Humans could be a bit petty and unwilling to share.

"Oh, not at all. I think I need more practice than she does. So, not risking it here." Cathryn replied. "And Bec really had it down very quickly."

The Doctor nodded, glad there were no domestics. No arguing from either party. Perhaps when they returned to the TARDIS, he would give them psychic paper of their very own. He was earnest in seeing what his granddaughter could do.

The door already opened with only two in line in front of him, he handed the paper to Bec. "Well, Rebecca, by all means, announce us."

If something went wrong, he could snatch the paper just as quickly or use telepathy to get inside however…Bec demonstrated the paper with remarkable ease as she showed it to the staff at the door.

And for Bec, it went smoothly despite her moment of hesitation. She focused just as she had practiced, introducing all four as representatives on behalf of the head BMA Public Relations campaign for Rose's supposed modeling company. They were ushered in with all apparent friendliness. It had Bec wishing she had one back at home.

"Impressive", the Doctor said as Bec folded up the pouch. He started to hold out his hand but Bec demurred.

"Do you mind if I keep it for a bit? Just for practice, and in case anyone asks us for our media ID or something…" Cathryn had already told her that, once they got in the door, additional ID wouldn't be required, but that didn't stop her from using the reason.

"Not at all. Just remember to share it with Cathryn. She could use the skill too."

He was proud. Since Bec had tossed back the sonic, maybe the psychic paper could be his proverbial olive branch. He certainly hoped so. She certainly seemed more inclined towards it where, while she had seemed to enjoy the theory of the sonic, she had been frequently distracted as he had had his girls run through a number of introductory exercises with the tool.

Both walked in, handing their coats in at the coat check as Bec still kept her psychic paper outside her coat and in the small purse she carried. However, she had warily left the device Mickey had given them to switch off the implants in her coat pocket, having no way to conceal it otherwise.

Pictures from photographers dispensed with upon entry, Cathryn guided their way to the hosted bar, taking a glass of Claret for herself with a club soda for Bec. _One glass_ , she told herself. It wouldn't be enough to impair her judgment. Then she joined Bec at the appetizer table to try the various hor'dourves. Cathryn followed her slowly sipping a glass of wine. They watched Rose depart sharing words with the Pete Tyler of this universe. The Doctor was at the other end of the buffet table, delighting himself on the variety of 'nibbles'.

"Oh!" he exclaimed. "They even have fairy cakes." One bite and frosting dotted his face. Bec frowned at him for the little mess he was making, and at his propensity to double dip.

After filling a plate with scotch eggs, roast and Yorkshire pudding with two desserts of Sticky Toffee pudding and Treacle tart, he proceeded to consume his sugary temptations with a healthy share of ice cream. _Or maybe Crème Fraiche._ He had intended for the majority of the evening on staying in the room to observe them, although, he had silently determined the door, which led to Pete Tyler's office. He took another mouthful from his plate while he watched as a woman in a silver gown approached his granddaughters, beginning a highly animated discussion with them.

Cathryn was navigating the choppy waters of the position of pretense engineered for the three. Although to be more specific, it was only two. They decided that with Rose's vibrant dress and her coloring, it was a good decision to fit her in the role of an up and coming model. As a singular joke, using the actress variation of her name, felt natural. Rose had worked in retail clothing previously and was adept at wearing heels. She was naturally social to the party-goers and took on the post of model of the BMA agency in London quite well. No one recognized her since a familiar model was often few and far between.

Both watched from a distance as Rose spoke simply to this version of the duplicate of her father who seemed to enjoy her company.

At the appetizer table, Cathryn felt too nervous even to take a bite.

"With what's happening, we need all the energy we can get." Bec's gentle statement was ambiguous although Cathryn understood her meaning as she spread a bit of pate on small slices of freshly baked bread.

"Ah, our new arrivals. It's any wonder I haven't met you before." A woman's voice.

Cathryn turned and swallowed hard, nearly choking. The actress that portrayed Mary Crawley in Downton Abbey. Bec was silent, briefly glancing at Cathryn for help.

"I'm flattered," Cathryn started. "But, I work in media relations. One of the attendees I accompanied is a model. Her first social gathering of this kind." She paused. "I always admired your work." She hoped this was the right thing to say.

But Michelle Dockery seemed pleased. "How fortuitous. I've only done a few films for the telly but managed to obtain a role on 'Walking the Dead'."

"Congratulations." Bec offered sincerely, despite having never seen the show.

"I hope so. Good luck to you both as well."

She strode away and Cathryn glanced at Bec. "You see, it only needs to remain that simple. Just talk to them and listen. Ask questions."

"I'm not really a people person, not for things like this," Bec admitted, flipping through the sonic paper. Testing various identities as they displayed themselves on the insert.

But whether they were picking up a drink or just watching the guests, they were still approached. Bec's nervousness had her difficulty in finding words. Cathryn finally 'admitted' Bec was an intern and wasn't versed in public affairs, having striven so hard in academics. But… Cathryn was certain this attitude would change since she approached events with the same amount of trepidation.

It created a conversation piece when the actors and actresses, writers and producers admitted that their first public encounter was often fraught with mishaps due to badly concealed nerves. In fact, one person after another insisted on relating their own embarrassing tale. For a moment, Bec was laughing at these accounts, marginally relaxed.

"But you're achieving an original idea," said another actor. His voice was smooth. Cathryn let out a gasp, feeling her cheeks warm. Stephen Fry. Oh, she loved him in _V for Vendetta_. His wit alone in his performance was wonderfully executed. "So often, those are hard to come by, don't you agree?"

Bec took a deep breath, fidgeting with the sleeve of her forest green dress. "Perhaps all the ideas have been spoken for," she finally suggested. "Besides, I've lost a taste for anything new."

"I heartily disagree." Stephen Fry said. "Have you tasted everything new in life? Can you safely say, there are no surprises, things left unchecked?" He took a step closer. "Take my advice. Taste every fruit of every tree in the garden at least once."

"Even the forbidden fruit? The one we were never supposed to touch?" Bec considered the story of the Garden of Eden. The rule God had given Adam and Eve. Only they broke his rule and were forced to leave paradise forever. "You think the price they paid for knowledge of good and evil was worth it?"

"Indeed," he mused. "Perhaps I am one of the singular view but I am of the mind that fruit was never meant to be untouched. Therefore the tree was present already and it's an insult to our Creator or creation to not experience it fully." He gave a smooth grin. "Even temperance can be seen as a form of wickedness."

"I never thought of it that way," Cathryn admitted.

"It is cliché to regret our departure from paradise while also a cliché that most clichés are true. But then, like the forbidden fruit we were told to deny, like most clichés are, tend to be untrue."

Bec grinned slightly, amused as she heartily disagreed with his assessment on forbidden fruit. Travelling with the Doctor any longer was one experience she could happily do without.

He sighed sipping at his whiskey before glancing around the room. "Well, I must take my leave and wish my hosts a charming party and a good night."

Cathryn sighed as he moved on but she smiled at Bec. "Oh, well done. Perfectly engaged."

"You mean it?" Bec asked, glancing at the actor's back.

"I do. Your questions gave me a bit to think about." The brunette glanced at the blonde. She was still turning the psychic paper in her hands. As a safety measure, she practiced on the staff that was serving glasses of champagne and appetizers. So far, her results were promising.

The Doctor was still ensuring his girls were secure in one relative position. They were in the midst of an animated discussion with a group of celebrities and the Doctor smiled, before heading to Pete's office. The task he needed where he had to pull off the inevitable.

 _It's now or never._ Three to five minutes was all he needed to investigate. Seeing that both his girls were asked to dance for which Cathryn accepted and Bec only agreed with trepidation, he breathed, quickly stepping inside the office. His girls wouldn't even know that he was missing.

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A furtive glance between the two was all they needed. The sign of their window of opportunity. Cathryn immediately excused herself from her dance partner saying she was suffering a bout of nausea. Bec on the other hand tried to put on a convincing frown, pardoning herself, saying she had to assist her friend. The cloak room wasn't being observed since the party was still within its initial hour. Seizing their coats, they took turns unzipping their dresses to only show their leggings and a t-shirt underneath. The chill crept through them both as they slipped on their respective coats.

"Where do we put the dresses?" Cathryn asked quietly.

Bec paused before having an idea. "Rose's room."

"Rose's room?" the brunette repeated in confusion. Rose was still chatting with the dimensional duplicates of her parents. "I don't…." She paused. "The Rose here is a…"

"Dog. I know. But look at this place," Bec said as she waved her arm widely to include the whole mansion. "That dog must have her own little room. The Doctor wouldn't really think to look there."

Suddenly the novelty of the idea struck Cathryn. Dropping their dresses in the coat room would be suspicious. The Doctor would be certain to see them but if in a room that was out of the way of the main events….

"Let's go," Cathryn said, eagerly captivated by this new plan. They walked down the hallway just to hear the faint barking behind a closed door. One that was also locked. Pulling out her screwdriver, she disengaged the lock, slowly opening the door, to keep the dog inside. She began yapping excitedly while the girls opened a small closet, tossing the dresses at the bottom of the floor, closing it behind them.

Now they could leave but just as they were exiting the main door, they noticed Stephen Fry waiting for his car.

"You two done in already or is your work demanding your presence?"

"Neither," Bec replied. "I've never been one for huge parties. I find them a little taxing."

"Between us, so do I," he said conspiratorially. "But allow me to do the gentlemanly thing and offer you ladies a lift back to your hotel."

"We would hate to be an imposition," Cathryn demurred.

"Oh, now there's a bit of nonsense. Without you, you would leave me with only myself for company, alone in a car."

Finally, they relented, climbing into the backseat. It was an opportunity. An even better one than they had expected. When he asked where to drop them, Cathryn answered.

"Corus Hotel Hyde Park." It did have an advantages and Cathryn knew the location. A smaller building. If they chose to stay, they could exit out of the window should the need arise. She settled back in her seat taking out the device that would deactivate the implants. It was almost over.

She checked her phone. ' _On our way to the Tyler mansion.'_ A pause. _'What should I tell the Doctor about you and Bec?'_

The two girls glanced at each other and nodded. _'Once you find the Doctor and Rose, tell him that you were too late for us. You saw us get taken. That it's probably already too late.'_

' _Too late. Copy that. We'll send him home packing.'_

Cathryn swallowed. They left the car, thanking Stephen Fry for the drive, staring at the hotel while pulling out the activation device with trembling fingers. It seemed similar in function to the sonic screwdrivers he had already given them a crash course in. Using the strange metal device, she pressed the button. It flashed once and then the power completely went off. A simple action. No more dosages or sedation could be given. This was a victory. The first of many, so they hoped.

"So what now?" Bec asked.

"We need a way out of the country. Quickly too. Away from where he can sense us with the bond. The airports might already be out of the question but…." she glanced out the window of the lobby. The lights of the zeppelins were shining brightly in the sky. Cathryn felt uneasy. She hated flying and grimaced in reflection, looking at Bec. "Well, it is an option."

"A zeppelin," Bec agreed with an amused grin. "Maybe. If we find one. Not as fast but if we bribe a driver… If there is a driver to bribe." She wondered if they would still be operational or under the firm hand of Lumic control. "A car might be better. Slower, we couldn't get as far as flying, but we should have enough time to get far enough away. Gives us more options. Quick getaway and then find a way across the channel when we have more time."

"Any ticket out of this nightmare, I'll take it…" Cathryn's words froze in her throat. She could see them all two clearly. Hear them on the street. The metal clang of their steps. The mechanical voices. The Cybermen. Submerging into London. Heading in their very direction.

Panic flooded through her. _What are we going to do?_ She thought. _They're too close. We should have gotten out sooner. We should have…._

Bec had seen them too, feeling her body riddled with anxiety. "So what…." The word stuck as she struggled to breathe, to think past the rushing sound like a waterfall in her ears. Cathryn broke free of her paralysis first and grabbed Bec by the arm, forcibly dragging her into action as the two began their necessary sprint. She could only hope they made it in time. Make it away in time and find a car.

They managed to drift into the back street below as Cathryn reached for her sonic, hoping she remembered the setting to unlock and start a car. She had been practicing but her mind wasn't working properly with her heart racing. Fear consuming her as her hand slipped over the settings, causing her to fall back on the tried and true 'point and think'. The loud echo of metal feet resonated all around them. Her hands still sweaty on the device. _God help me._ She thought, hearing the Cybermen near their very spot. Would they even make it out of this alive?

"Please, please, please…" Was Cathryn's repeated soft chant as this nightmare in silver encroached ever closer. She was likewise vaguely away of Bec murmuring her own mantra, but she couldn't discern her words through her own cloud of fear. To come all this way only to be cyberdized or killed…

And everywhere around them the streets were full of the sound of the invading army of robots that seemed to leave no corner unsearched.

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At the same time, the Doctor was in panic. Cathryn and Bec had disappeared without a trace and no one seemed to know where. _Five minutes_ , he fumed. _I was only gone for five minutes and…._ but thoughts pervaded his mind. _Cyberspace. The ultimate upgrade._

That could only mean….

Barreling out the front door, he looked frantically around for his girls and Rose. The blonde was caught transfixed at the window. Quickly, he joined her, only to stare in horror as to the sight of the machines approaching the door.

"It's happening again," he managed, his voice thick with dread of the impending deaths, before glancing around. _Where was Bec and Cathryn? Were they in the loo or…._

"Wha' d'you mean?" Rose asked.

"I've seen them before." The Doctor was grim. Both hearts were pounding. His mind was contemplating many possible scenarios. If his girls had just stepped outside to take in the night air... he began to feel the sickening consternation of everything it meant to be a parent.

"What are they?" Rose was focused entirely on the machines. They were a considerable army and she was very much intimidated by the odds. Of all the things she had experienced, such intimidating robots had yet to become part of her travels. _Well, unless you count the Daleks._

"Cybermen."

Then he heard the screams and the sounds of broken glass. His eyes widened at the encroaching force. He snagged Rose's hand, pulling her to the rest of the group who was panicking in the midst of the chaos, like a fish hiding from predators in a school of its own kind, even as his eyes continues his frantic search for any sign of his children.

The Cybermen surrounded the terrified group of party guests as the President struggled for some semblance of control, while speaking to Mr. Lumic over the attached earpods.

"What are they? Robots?" Rose asked.

"Worse than that," the Doctor muttered.

The chatter continued as Rose felt a sense of shock radiate through her at the epiphany she had then made overhearing the Presidents words. A gruesome one to be certain. "They were people."

"They were." The Doctor's voice was flat. "Until they had all their humanity taken away." He paused. "There is a living brain jammed inside a cybernetic suit with a heart of steel. All emotions removed."

"But why no emotions?" Rose asked.

The Doctor simply looked at her sadly. "Because it hurts."

The President at that point stood his ground, despite the Doctor's warning, when the Cybermen proclaimed they were all to be upgraded. He refused to budge, telling them he preferred the secondary option despite that one wasn't offered. That option only too quickly demonstrated itself when the Cybermen electrocuted him. Chaos ensued as another young woman was electrocuted in her attempt to run. Rose could smell the burning flesh, the adrenaline and the panic as everyone raced to the doors.

She was paralyzed by this horrific display of death when the Doctor seized her hand, dragging her out a window before she could even start to think.

"There's nothing we can do," he shouted.

"My mum's in there!" Rose didn't care whether she technically wasn't her mum. She still looked and smelled just like her. On some level, she was still Jackie Tyler and was like the woman that raised her. How could she just leave her behind?

The Doctor brushed her protest aside. "She's not your mother. C'mon!"

They were outside running around the perimeter of the house as the Cybermen closed in their ranks on the pair, which now became a third as Pete Tyler had just jumped out of a window to join them.

But all points of the exterior of the house had been surrounded even as Pete tried to find an avenue of escape through the side gates. In this frenzy, the Doctor inhaled briefly unable to help but worry about his girls. Had they been taken too? While he wasn't looking? How could he be so thoughtless? The crushing anxiety weighed heavily on his hearts. He could hardly sense them. What if they were going through the worst? What if….

 _No._ He couldn't think that way. At least not yet. Not during a crisis and trying to evade the Cybermen…. At the worst, if they were taken, he could hope they would be allocated for further observation due to the slight differences in their physiological make up, which would give him the time he needed to rescue them.

Another group of Cybermen was attempting to flank them until he heard a voice from an unexpected quarter.

"Get behind me!" Mickey yelled authoritatively. Lights from the background barely made them distinguishable but no one questioned the order.

Guns fired and the Cybermen simply stood in place, pausing momentarily before their advance. Rose gleefully embraced the young man. "I was so worried…."

"No offense but who the hell are you?" the young man asked.

"That's not me!" Mickey again. "That's the other me."

"Oh, if things weren't bad enough already, there are now two Mickey's," the Doctor said sarcastically.

"Better not let Cathryn or Bec hear you say that." Rose managed to chide, before glancing around, suddenly noticing the obvious absence of the two women.

But the Cybermen were surrounding them, forming a nearly impassable barrier as the men attempted to continue to shoot. The Doctor pushed the guns down. "It won't work. Guns won't stop them." He looked at the Cybermen. "We surrender." He held up his hands in a placating manner. "No need to damage us, we're good stock. We volunteer for the upgrade program."

If his girls had been taken, surrendering themselves might be the perfect strategy to reach them to stage a rescue.

"We surrender," he repeated as one of the Cybermen neared him to speak.

"You are incompatible," the robot announced mechanically.

"But this is a surrender," the Time Lord insisted.

"You will be deleted," was the cold voice of authority.

"But we surrender. Listen to me. We surrender." The Doctor raised his voice in desperation. Much counted on finding the upgrade facilities as well as his girls but if not even that was going to occur….

"You are inferior. Man will be reborn as Cybermen but you will perish at maximum deletion." It was said. A final order. A decree in repetition. "Delete, delete, delete…."

Inhaling through his nose, he grimaced as his eyes carried the haunted expression. The downtrodden. The one he was accustomed to for being the last of his kind. Breathing in sharply he closed his eyes.

 _Not my girls._ He prayed desperately. _Please just not my girls._ Where had they gone?

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 **Authors' note:**

 **Thank you all for your reviews, words of encouragement and letters. We are sorry we might not have been responsive to some of them since life events have been hectic. We're both in school and dealing with tumultuous things at home. Thank you to AmberLovelyLight for her constructive feedback, which we well regard and to Fan Fictional Authoress for the inspiration of her stories. Also, thank you to Almaydnis Rayne for her technical expertise. Reviews are helpful and constructive for future work, and, don't worry, we're not giving up on this. Thanks again.**

 **azaadin** ** & emptyvoices**


	12. Bait and Switch

**Chapter 12: Bait and Switch**

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Mickey had wandered through the streets, surprised by the differences from this world to his own. The soldiers and curfew had been one thing, but that moment when a few people in the street around him had stopped suddenly was something else. Mickey had stepped closer to investigate, wishing suddenly that he hadn't been so blasé about tromping off on his own, despite Cathryn and Bec's encouragement. He had been about to message the girls when a man who smelled like he'd been in the same clothes without a wash for weeks pulled him back.

"Don't disturb the Plugged In's," he hissed. "You don't want to set off the Shrill do you?"

"The shrill?" Mickey repeated, unable to hide his confusion.

The bum rolled his eyes with a huff and forcibly grabbed Mickey's arm, dragging him away from the people frozen in place. "You touch them while they're downloading and it sets off the alarm, the Shrill. You do that and half the army fall on this place. They don't care who's guilty. You'll take us _all_ down, but don't think the other fella's would let you live long enough to be arrested if you do," he warned viciously. It was obvious to Mickey that the man wasn't warning him for his sake, but for his own.

"Okay. Alright. No touching. Got it," Mickey acquiesced quickly, and the ragged man vanished back into the shadows between buildings.

Just as he was getting over being shaken by the threatening exchange, all the frozen people around him suddenly released a unified bubble of laughter which made him squeal and jump back still further from them, then they continued on their way as though nothing had happened.

The inter-dimensional traveller looked around perplexed. How could the world be so similar but so different? People walking around with flashing plugs in their ears that made them freeze in the street. Downloading? Is that what the bum had said? Like some sort of computer that goes straight into their brains? Mickey shuddered at the thought, glad he had grown up in his own universe and not this one.

For a moment he dearly looked forward to getting home again, until he remembered what Bec and Cathryn had said about his old Gran. If she was here, it would be worth staying. All the more if he could help out the girls once they escaped the Doctor.

His jaw set. No. He wouldn't go back. All he had to go back for was Rose, and it was very clear that she wasn't there for him to go back to anymore. And he certainly wouldn't keep travelling with the Doctor if he had a better alternative, not after what he'd seen the man do. He hoped the girl's plan to escape succeeded, for their sakes.

Soon he was walking the familiar path to his childhood home, well, a version of it anyway, when the young man was suddenly struck by a thought. Rose had said there was no version of her in this universe. Did he exist? Or would his Gran treat him like a stranger? Or worse! Did he have a double? In which case, he could never really stay with his Gran, not like he wanted to.

His mind flew back to what Cathryn and Bec had said, telling him he had to meet his counterpart. Is that what they meant? Another version of him? The him that the Gran in this universe would have raised?

He hesitated, suddenly doubting whether visiting his Gran was a good idea. What would happen if the other him was there with her? What would she think when she heard him?

But how could he not at least see her? Even if it was just the once? Just to know that she was alive and well, to tell her how much she meant to him like he never had the chance to before she was gone.

He took a slow deep breath and approached the door. Still worrying about her reaction if he was already there. _She always sent me to answer the door_ , he remembered. _I hear her telling me to answer, I bolt before I do_ , he decided, nodding slightly to himself as he reached for the knocker.

"Who's that there?" a sharp voice called out.

 _Gran!_ Mickey froze, unable to respond as the door opened before him. Despite what the girls had told him, despite all he'd been thinking, he realised that he never truly believed she was alive, that he could see her again.

He remembered coming home that day, seeing the ambulance in the street, the paramedics loading the covered stretcher into the back of the van. He'd watched with interest as they slammed the doors closed... until he'd seen the police officers walking out of the front door of his own home, approaching the paramedics.

His Gran had died. He'd watched them drive away with her as he stood across the road beside his pushbike. They'd never even noticed him, no one had, not until one of the gossiping neighbours had offered to let him sit on their couch while they made him tea, no doubt so she could relate his grief to the rest of the street afterwards. He'd fled. He'd gone to Rose. The one person he had left who knew him for who he was, who he didn't have to pretend for. He didn't pretend that he didn't miss his Mum. He didn't pretend that he wasn't angry at his Dad. And he didn't pretend that he wasn't devastated by the loss of his Gran.

But here she stood before him, alive and formidable as she ever was.

"Hi," he said finally, at a complete loss for words.

The elderly woman stepped forward, the proud expression fading into something more vulnerable at the sound of his voice. "Is that you?" she asked, as though she hadn't seen him for as long as he'd been without her.

"It's me. I came home," he told her. His first homecoming since that day. He'd been back, of course, when he'd had to clear out his stuff when he moved into his flat, but it hadn't been home anymore. Her presence had filled the whole house, no matter which room she was in, but the house had been empty. He'd packed, left, and never looked back.

"Mickey?" she called, the hopeful grief in her voice tearing at his heart. She sounded so lonely.

"It's me Gran."

She reached forward blindly and pulled him into a tight embrace, one he never thought he'd feel again. "I came home," he repeated, his words muffled by her shoulder.

After a moment she pulled back again, and Mickey searched for something to say, wanting to tell her how glad he was to see her, how much she meant to him, how sorry he was for everything he'd done to make her so upset, and everything he hadn't done... but instead he found himself fending off the angry slaps that she levelled in his direction.

"You stupid boy," she admonished over his protests. "Where have you been? It's been days and days! I keep hearing all these stories. People disappearing off the streets. There's nothing official on the download but there're all these rumours, and, and whispers. I thought that God had disappeared you!"

But Mickey's attention had been stolen from her words to the frayed carpet step inside her home. "That carpet on the stairs, I told you to get it fixed. You're going to fall and break your neck," he warned her, his grief and guilt colouring his words.

"Well, you get it fixed for me," she delegated firmly.

"I should have done way back," he admitted. If he'd only fixed it the first time... "I guess I'm just kind of useless."

"Now, I never said that," his Gran corrected reassuringly.

"I am, though," he admitted, his voice thick. "And I'm sorry, Gran. I'm so sorry."

"Don't talk like that," she said consolingly, obviously taken aback by her grandson's turn around. "Do you know what you need? A nice sit down and a cup of tea. You got time?"

Mickey offered her a gentle smile, even though she couldn't see it. "For you, I've got all the time in the world."

"Oh, you say that, but it's all talk," the matriarch corrected. "It's those new friends of yours. I don't trust them."

"What friends are they?" the traveller asked, suddenly remembering that there was another him running around this London somewhere. A flare of anger burned in his chest for a moment that the other Mickey had simply abandoned his Gran, left her so broken and lonely, and after all she'd done for him. He hadn't even bothered to fix that step before he left. Did he not know what would happen? An old blind woman with a frayed carpet stair? Was the other him so different that he just didn't care?

But then his judgment turned inward. His double wasn't that different, because he'd never fixed the stair either, only he'd had to live with the consequences that his duplicate had been able to avoid. _Well, not anymore._ If his double had been missing so long, then he could fix the stair without fear of being found out as an imposter. He could fix the cupboard door in the kitchen that never closed, that the broom always fell out of. He could fix the taps in the bathroom that always dripped. He could be the grandson he always should have been.

"Don't pretend you don't know," she continued, unaware of the young man's wayward thoughts. "You've been seen with them. Missus Chan told me. Driving about all helter skelter in that van."

"What van's that, then?" he asked, hopelessly trying to pick up the threads of the conversation, even though it was regarding his double's actions, not his own.

"You know full well! Don't play games with me," she told him in a tone that warned that she was not to be trifled with. "Get inside." Her invitation was an order, but not one that Mickey could accept, as, at that very moment, he was grabbed and manhandled away from the door.

"I've been looking for you everywhere!" the man barked as he rushed Mickey into the van that he hadn't noticed until the tyres had screeched to a halt right outside his Gran's home. Mickey was too much in shock to resist, still shaken as he was at seeing his Gran again to be able to respond quickly enough to being abducted. The door was slammed shut, and the van sped off, but not before Mickey heard his old Gran fearfully calling his name.

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The explanation was a haphazard one. Mickey was berated, on top of various things, for making contact with his family, which Jake, one of the lead techs, told him in no certain terms that he should know. Then he was pronounced as 'number one'.

"Number one in what?" he asked Jake.

" _The_ number one," the young man repeated as though the answer should be obvious. "Top of the list. London's top ten most wanted."

"Right…." Mickey nodded as if understanding, but then his thoughts hiccuped to a pause as the words began to sink in, his chest constricting. "Could you just say that again?"

What had he gotten himself into?

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Mickey felt like he was getting deeper and deeper into trouble with seemingly no way to get out, but his inadvertent gig was up when they ran into his counterpart, as Bec had tried to explain. Still the situation was disorienting, as the other Mickey circled him suspiciously.

"Satisfied?" he finally asked his stalking double, having answered all their questions as credibly as possible, meaning he left out the whole coming from another universe part.

The other Mickey was bemused. "This is impossible. He's even wearing the same tattoo."

"You both have the same fathers?" Jake suggested remembering the stranger's answers to Mickey's earlier question. "Brothers?"

"I was under the impression, I was the only child."

"Well, be fair, Mickey. What else could it be?" Jake folded his arms across his chest.

"But he doesn't just look like me. He is exactly the same." The militant Mickey bent down as he scrutinised his twin, trying to find any differences between them. It just didn't seem right to him. If this imposter had been sent in to spy on them or to try to replace him to infiltrate the group, then Lumic had backed the wrong horse. This 'Mickey' was no fighter. Even if he hadn't been available to expose the doppelganger, his group would have worked it out soon enough. The man, though he looked the part and knew his history, seemed to have no idea who they were. Why would he have been sent to infiltrate them with surpassing history and yet no relevant information? He couldn't have been a spy. "There's something else going on here, Jake," he concluded aloud.

Mickey had frowned and glanced at his tattoo when his double mentioned it, remembering his decision to get it after his dad had left. The Ying and Yang symbol was the first part of the tattoo he'd had inked. He'd chosen it not as a reminder of all he's suffered, of his loss and rejection, but as a reminder that he could be better than all that, that even with all the bad he had suffered, he could still be good, that those bad things helped him to be good. Everything in his life that had pulled him down had only served to build him up into the man he was, and he would be a better man for it. Ying and Yang. He even had the date of his epiphany written boldly above the design to make sure he would never forget, to remind himself to be a better man than his father had been, to not let the bad things in life weigh down the good.

His tattoo had taken on a new significance for him after his Gran had died. He'd realised that he hadn't been as good as he'd vowed to be, he had only focused on what was good for him. Then that year that Rose had been missing… he'd wondered if this was his Karma for not being better, for not taking the few hours to put his Gran's needs before his own. Looking at it again, he silently reaffirmed his promise, and he would start by helping Bec and Cathryn in any way that he could, by putting their needs, their need to escape, foremost in his priorities.

And he couldn't help them by being the tin dog, by letting things happen around him. He would be better.

"So who are you lot?" he asked, taking initiative despite still being tied to a chair.

Mickey straightened, circling in the chair his double occupied. "We, we are the Preachers. As in Gospel Truth. You see?" He gestured his ears in demonstration. "No ear plugs. While the rest of the world downloads from Cybus Industries, we, we have got freedom. You're talking to London's Most Wanted," he announced, pausing for effect. "But target Number One is Lumic, and we are going to bring him down."

"From your kitchen?" Mickey queried, bewildered as to whether this ragtag group were the force of reckoning they made themselves out to be. Was this really what the girls had in mind?

Jake only smirked at him. The caustic grin said it all to clear. Once again, he was considered the fool.

"Have you got a problem with that?" the other Mickey demanded, leaning in threateningly.

"No, it's a good kitchen," the young man offered, certainly not wishing to upset his captors.

The laptop let out a pronounced ding. "It's an upload from Gemini," Mrs. Moore alerted them all quickly as Mickey looked on in confusion.

"Who is Gemini?" No one answered him and he grimaced. Of course not. Once an idiot, always the idiot.

"The vans are back. They're moving out of Battersea. Looks like Gemini was right. Lumic's finally making a move," Mrs. Moore announced.

"And we are right behind him." The other Mickey's voice was authoritative. He was used to giving commands and having them be followed. "Pack up, we're leaving."

xxxxxxxxxx

Cybermen fanned out through the streets like a military parade, gathering a harvest to be upgraded. There numbers were still low, but they seemed to be strategically focusing their efforts on those who could be acquired unobtrusively, whether those who joined the parade at the Cybermen's invitation, oblivious to the danger as they sought to learn what the stunt was promoting, or those at the fringes who could be acquired by force without raising the suspicions of the general populace. Bec and Cathryn evidently fell into this second group.

Running through the alley had its own set of dangers. Bec led the way through scarcely lit corridors while Cathryn, bring up the rear, struggled to see the path up ahead. She was briefly caught by a sharp, sting of pain, feeling a piece of broken glass, likely from the broken window parallel to them, cut directly into her lower calf. Tears welled in her eyes as blood welled from the wound, soaking through her leggings and dripping down her foot onto the ground. Her cry and hiss of pain caused Bec to stop momentarily, double back a step to grip her arm.

"You okay?" Bec asked, glancing behind them, knowing that time, of any increment, was not on their side.

"Ye…yes," Cathryn managed, but Bec came close to inspect the injury just the same.

"Can I see?" she asked quickly as she glanced around the empty alley, praying it would remain so.

The cut was jagged and deep, but not too deep. Blood was seeping from the wound, but not running or spurting as though an artery or major blood vessel had been cut. "It'll need stitches, sorry, but it will be okay for now. We'll wrap it up. I'm sorry, but we can't stop long," Bec said, taking stock of her own and Cathryn's clothing as she considered what she could use as some sort of temporary bandage.

Cathryn spotted a discarded towel lying on the ground. It was hardly clean but who was she to be picky? Seizing the towel, she made a makeshift bandage to tie tightly around her leg, while Bec went back to surveilling the alleyway. Bec had been right, it was still deep and she would eventually require stitches or…. She thought of the sonic. _Yes_. The correct setting would treat small wounds. She certainly hoped this would qualify. "It's fine. I'll be fine," she reassured her friend as she tested the injury by straightening her leg. She winced slightly, but ignored the pain. It was far less than what she would experience if they were caught. "We have to get going. They're gaining on us."

"But where?" Bec asked. "I'm all turned around and I've never been here before." She sighed in consternation. She and her husband had talked about visiting England for their honeymoon but finances dictated that they consider alternate destinations or else delay moving out of the family granny flat for another few years, therefore she had never visited the City she always yearned to visit. Through the years, other events inevitably delayed their plans. Bec had become pregnant with Hope and then she received word about her daughter's impending condition, and then they had two small boys to consider. Their initial plan to visit the United Kingdom slowly being redesignated as a _one day_ holiday.

"The underground," Cathryn announced finally. "It's a labyrinth and there's tunnels not even open to the public. Take a few minutes hide in there. Come out the other end. Try to find a car."

"And if…." Bec breathed. "If they catch us. The Cybermen…."

"Then, God help us all," Cathryn told her. "Don't think about it. We stay together. We don't split up. Then we wait."

Wait for what, it was hard to say. They dashed into the Lancaster station while they located the sealed door with a warning informing the public it was only available for maintenance. The sonic proved helpful in bypassing this barrier, but, Cathryn had to admit, it was eerie to see the underground look like the grim outline of a horror movie. As soon as they resealed the gate, leading to the dark, unused tracks below, they heard the stomping metal feet acting in unison. They were searching for subjects to acquire for upgrading. They were looking for them.

Cathryn glanced down at her phone. ' _No signal'._ Both she and Bec waited with baited breath to see whether these horrifying creatures would stop to check the door or if they were fortunate, simply to pass them by. _Please, please, please…._ she silently begged. She felt choked by her very fear, almost to the point of losing rationality. The gentle comfort she'd previously felt as she and Bec had supported each other through this ordeal had fled her the further they'd fled from the mansion, as they'd delved deeper into the danger of Cyberman territory. The loss of that feeling of safety left in its place an emptiness, a hollow helplessness that sought to overwhelm her. Turning to see Bec, who had paled considerably and appeared just as helpless and terrified as she felt, she took both her hands in her own, murmuring a quiet prayer, offering her own gentle comfort. _'Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed by Thy Name…."_

And within her mind, she felt Bec repeating the very words Cathryn had spoken as they huddled down quietly in the dark.

xxxxxxxxxx

The rescue from the Preachers was indeed very well timed despite the two Mickeys' wariness of one another. They had followed the trail of breadcrumbs, which led directly to Pete Tyler and his Estate. This time, Mickey felt as though he now had the upper hand acting as a rescuer, which gave him some bit of satisfaction, although the Doctor was never one to give a thank you.

The frantic expression on the Doctor's face after he discharged the power cell to reduce the Cybermen to various hunks of metal and debris did not depart for a moment, even as he directed the group into the getaway van, including convincing Pete to flee without his wife. Mickey gave a brief inward smile at the plan that was so far working perfectly. Now it rested on him to maintain the act, disguising his communication with Cathryn and Bec. _He'll never expect it, will he?_ he thought darkly. _Not from some idiot who can't be trusted._ The irony of the situation was, he could be trusted. Certainly to those he considered friends. He would fight tooth and nail to keep them at his side.

But the Doctor after all he had seen was clearly not a friend. A man who had stolen them for selfish reasons and dictated his own brand of authority. _No parent would treat their children that way._ He rolled his shoulders back, examining the three they had salvaged from Pete Tyler's mansion while putting on a verifiable look of confusion.

"Wait, where are Bec and Cathryn?" Mickey asked looking around anxiously. He'd gotten their message that they'd successfully left the estate, but he had to keep up the ruse that he was ignorant of their whereabouts.

"I don't know," the Doctor admitted, everything about his demeanour betraying his stress. "If they stepped outside they may have been taken by an advance guard, rather than slaughtered like the rest." He closed his eyes, breathing slowly and deeply as his whole self paused, as he focused his every thought on the Bond, pouring his very focus and energy into it. At one singular moment he thought he felt a burst of their panic straining through the newly developed Bond. That evident moment of fear and then….nothing. He couldn't sense them. They had been taken to far too quickly, and their telepathy was still too underdeveloped, so the range of the Bond was so much more restricted than it would one day be.

"West, we need to go west," he announced, determining that as the last direction he'd sensed his children before their presence faded.

"No," Mrs Moore said firmly from behind the wheel. "You're with us, you go our way."

"But if the Cybermen have them-" He broke off, too sickened to continue the thought out loud, but his mind filled in the blanks for him in excruciatingly painful detail of what his girls would suffer.

"Hang on, you wouldn't let me go back for my wife, but you'll risk all of us for your friends," Pete demanded in disgust. Hot fury and guilt warred within him. He shouldn't have left, he shouldn't have left her behind. He'd listened to this man, this _hypocrite_ , who told him to leave his wife for dead so he could save his own friends. Why did he ever leave Jackie? Why did he listen? Was it because this stranger gave him an excuse to flee when he was too afraid to save her?

"She might still be alive," Rose offered the man who wasn't her father hopefully.

"That's even worse," Pete lamented, as his mind turned to the horrors he may have abandoned Jackie to, thinking of the reports he'd managed to steal into.

"Anyone in that house is dead," the Doctor reiterated, both as a comfort and a resolute reminder. "But they got out before the bloodbath, before everyone was declared incompatible. They still have a chance-"

"You said it yourself, if those machines have them they're dead," Pete argued, fuming that this man would dismiss his wife for his own friends. Was she no more important than anyone else?

"They're only children, my children!" the Doctor yelled.

"You told me to leave Jackie behind, my _wife_. If they were still in the house would you have gone back for them?" Pete demanded.

The Doctor pause moment sucking in a breath through his teeth. He knew where Pete's argument was going, but it didn't make a difference. Of course he would have gone back for them. What father wouldn't?

"Hang on, I thought they were your grandchildren, great grandchildren even," Mickey accused before the Doctor could get another word in. Even he could see the Doctor's hypocrisy, especially given the 'children' in question were older than he.

"They are children of the house of Lungbarrow and, as Head of House, that makes them my children, regardless of generational separation," he explained at high speed.

"Well if those cyberthings have them you'll need something better than running after them, guns blazing, given how well that went," Mrs Moore added, ever the voice of reason in their small collective.

"Yeah, what was that thing that took them down?" the other Mickey demanded. Considering what they were facing, he didn't want this stranger holding out on them if he had a weapon that could help them that could help the stop Lumic and his machines.

"A little bit of home," the Doctor admitted distractedly. His thoughts were still on his girls, but their driver was correct. He needed a plan, and to form a plan he needed information. "How about you? How did you just 'happen' to be here?" he suddenly demanded of the vigilante group.

"We've got someone on the inside," the duplicate Mickey explained. "Someone who's told us who the traitors are, who sold us all out to Lumic." He hoisted his gun towards Pete as he spoke. "Might not work on those robot men, but flesh and blood…" He never thought it would come to this, but after everything he had seen, all the lives that had been lost, could he risk that Pete Tyler would betray them, the only resistance against Cybus Industries, to his master?

"Put that down now," the Doctor commanded calmly. He found it hard to reconcile the alternate Mickey with the one from his own universe. They looked the same, spoke in the same manner, but this Mickey was slightly harder, as though he had been exposed to far more hardships and suffering and had reached the point where he had to fight back. Is this what their own Mickey was capable of? Would he also be willing to fight with whatever he had for what he believed in? An admirable trait, if so, but, so their own Mickey didn't follow the same path as this alternate version, so he would never consider killing as the best option, he would have to guide the young man as he travelled with them, teach him a better way than his duplicate had learned. Is this the potential his girls had seen? Was this why they had always spoken against his disregard for the boy? Had he truly missed seeing Mickey's potential?

Mickey in turn was a little off guard. Bec and Cathryn seemed invariably surprised in their text message when he confirmed he had met his counterpart. _My counterpart._ Mickey thought. _There's something you don't hear every day. Not while changing brake pads or rotating tires._ He shook his head briefly, glancing surreptitiously at his phone. Thankfully, the Doctor advanced the SIM card so if the wireless network was down, it could still function as a sole mobile hotspot and transmitter. Their one surprise was his counterpart's name was also his and not 'Ricky'. _Parallel World._ Mickey shrugged. _Why wouldn't it be Mickey?_ Although, he had to admit, that might simplify matters when either one of them was addressed. _Maybe it's as simple as that._ He thought. _Sorta rubbish like name changes for a telly show means less work._ Apparently, there was some debate as to call them Mickey one and Mickey two but which one would be considered first?

 _Probably him._ Mickey groused, looking at his counterpart. The Doctor even appeared to respect his double more than he ever did him. _Right. Cause I'm always the idiot no matter what. That whole year Rose was gone. Hacking into Scotland Yard, MI-5 to find her._ Oh, that was bloody awful. Three times he'd been called in and interrogated. He knew it was more than just because they dated or snogged, he was profiled. His race came into question, which made the experience worse. Forced to spend the money he had been saving for a car on an attorney instead. He huffed quietly before glancing at the Doctor, barely concealing his disdain. _Good riddance to this tosser._

"We have in on good authority that Mister Pete Tyler has been working for Lumic since twenty point five," other Mickey sneered, his aim not wavering. _He's just as guilty as Lumic_ , he told himself, trying to strengthen his resolve. All those lives lost. Even wouldn't even wish this on his worse enemy.

"Is that true?" Rose asked the man softly, the disbelief evident in her voice.

"Tell 'em, Mrs M," the young apparent leader of the group ordered.

The Doctor turned towards the informative driver, listening closely to all that was said. "We've got a government mole who feeds us information. Lumic's private files, his South American operations, the lot. Secret broadcasts twice a week."

"Broadcast from Gemini?" Pete interrupted.

"And how do you know that?" other Mickey demanded, jerking the gun threateningly.

"I'm Gemini. That's me," the multi-millionaire stated.

"Yeah, well you would say that," the young man with the aggressive gun scoffed uncertainty.

"Encrypted wavelength six five seven using binary nine. That's the only reason I was working for Lumic. To get information. I thought I was broadcasting to the Security Services. What do I get? Scooby Doo and his gang. They've even got the van."

 _Binary nine._ Mickey noted to himself. It could prove helpful should they come into direct access with the server. But….

"Wait," he said. "No, no, no." He paused in some momentary confusion. "The Preachers- you all know what you're doing. Retrace the IP address to the source. Hadn't you thought of-"

"Course I thought of it," the other Mickey defended. "They keep changing the port number and their firewall settings." He grimaced. "Circuit-level gateway, proxy server and packet filter, on the software and hardware level. That's why we needed a mole."

"Because every time you tried to bypass the server using an SSH port with an NAT router, they were able to tunnel in back to your IP address through the remote host." Mickey nodded. They could latch onto their IP no matter how many remote servers they tried to bounce it through. "So all that got you on the nine most wanted list?"

"Nine most wanted hackers," the other Mickey clarified. "I was fighting the system." He paused. "Directly."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows as slow comprehension began to dawn on him. Had he always assumed Mickey was an idiot based on that very first impression? He remembered how upset Rose was when she thought the young man was dead. He had been dismissive but he hadn't known Mickey and when the boy was holding tightly to Rose, overwhelmed in panic from the hours he spent trapped by the Nestene Consciousness, he liked him even less. But now….

He swallowed thinking of his girls, remembering how ardently they spoke on Mickey's behalf. _My girls…._ his thoughts drifted, thinking of the Cybermen and cringed. _What if they were already taken? What if they…._

No. He couldn't go there. Not yet. Perhaps their acute visionary nature saw the attack coming minutes before it occurred. They could simply be hiding or…ooohh, he could imagine how terrified they were but he simply wasn't in range through the bond to offer them any comfort.

He struggled to turn his attention back to the situation at hand and forced a grin at this dimension's Mickey. "Good policy. I do much the same." He looked at the rest of the passengers realizing the human custom of introductions had yet to be performed. He might as well give it a start. "I'm the Doctor by the way." He paused with significance. "In case anyone's interested."

Rose could only look at Pete thinking how similar this version of her father was to the one she lost back at home. _But he's not my father._ The Doctor had said it so many times but still, the repeated mantra didn't seem to work. "And I'm Rose." Her voice was soft, looking at Pete while she breathed in deeply. _Lost him once._ Tears pricked her eyes remembering how she held her father as he died in her arms. _And now he's here and I can't…._ she struggled to smile but couldn't quite manage it. She wished Cathryn and Bec were here because she knew they would understand the dilemma. Especially Cathryn who gave her a proper lecture about taking your parents for granted. She knew the Doctor was far more worried than he had already admitted. Rose was anxious about Bec and Cathryn too.

"Even better." Pete said with a touch of irony. "That's the name of my dog." He looked at Rose feeling the same underlying connection to the blonde he had experienced when they spoke outside during the party. "Still, at least the modeling agency is on my side." It was a feeble sort of joke given the dire circumstances.

"I was always on your side." Rose said simply. "I knew you weren't a spy."

"Why's that, then?" Pete asked in curiosity.

Rose was silent for a moment, glancing at the Doctor who was simply observing the pair. "I just did."

"They took my wife." Pete said. "And we just left her there because your children…" He looked at the Doctor grimly. "You think your family is more important than mine?"

 _Sure_ ,Mickey thought caustically. _As pets. Things to be injected with, experimented on, chipped…just like adopting a cat._ But he kept quiet. The girls had stressed how important it was that he play along. Appear concerned for their absence and not give himself away. And he wouldn't. He refused to fail. Not this time.

The Doctor looked at Pete wearily. He understood the man's grief but there were too many Cybermen in the house. If they hadn't left the home when they did, their lives would add to the body count.

Rose slipped her hand in with the Doctor's, giving it a squeeze. "They could all still be alive." She offered. "We don't know for sure." She could see just how concerned he was, they all could, but only she could see how much more fear he was keeping hidden out of sight. He genuinely cared for the two missing women, and she wished they could see that. It was true that he'd made mistakes along the way, lots of them, some that she intended to confront him about at the right moment, but she knew his heart was in the right place. She'd had her own moments with him where his way of thinking was so different from what she'd known. Sometimes it was better, a better way of living your life, but other times it just so… _alien_ … such as, when they'd met so long ago, when he kept forgetting Mickey, misinterpreting her tears of fear and grief. _'Culture shock'_ he'd called it. She'd thought he had gotten better, but perhaps it was just with her, perhaps he genuinely couldn't understand why they were so upset. When they all got back to the TARDIS, she decided silently, she was going to lock them all up in the kitchen together and they'd talk it out. She'd keep the tea coming until they worked it out… or ran out of milk, whichever came first.

"Yes and I told you that's even worse," Pete declared echoing the dread the Doctor was experiencing. "'Cos that's what Lumic does. He takes the living and turns them into those machines."

"Cybermen," the Doctor corrected emptily, his hearts clenching tightly within his chest. "They're called Cybermen." He swallowed. "And I would take those earpods off if I were you," he warned Pete who hesitated.

"Thought listening in, getting information, might be able to find my wife…" He stared at the Time Lord. "Or your children." He shrugged. "You have a better plan?"

"I suppose," the Doctor returned. "Best not to discuss it if Lumic might be listening in, wouldn't you say?"

That caused Pete to freeze remembering the security Lumic had instilled to look for Mickey and his group of cyber terrorists as they were called. How it could now be so simple to track down his algorithm on the wireless network and then….

He removed the earpods, grimacing at the notion. "Lumic is desperate," Pete managed. "He's dying and he's desperate."

"And he's overreached himself." The Doctor clenched his jaw. "He's still just a businessman. He's killing people. All we need to do is get into the City and inform the authorities." He inhaled through his nose. Once they shut Lumic down, the damage could be relatively contained. He could determine what happened to his family. So he did hope. He couldn't allow himself to think of what might occur to the contrary. He cleared his throat. "Because I promise you…" his mind on his granddaughters mixed with the devastation caused by the Cybermen. A rapid succession of possible horrors that he struggled to dismiss to the back of his mind. _No, they're out there. They have to be._

"This will all end tonight," the ancient alien declared with utter vehemence.

xxxxxxxxxx

They were able to notify Scotland Yard and MI-5 but by the time the public service announcement was declared warning everyone to remove their earpods and stay in their homes, it was too late. The lucky ones were able to take theirs out directly in time but an alarm sounded, the earpods flashed while people froze, turning to head in one steady direction.

"What the hell?" Jake asked in quandary. As one of the Preachers, he knew to expect many things but people turning into zombies? Did he really anticipate that?

"What's going on?" Rose turned to the Doctor, aghast at the majority of the unblinking individuals. _What's happening?_

"It's the ear-pods," the Doctor explained grimly. "Lumic is already taking control."

"But…." Rose paused, seeing the lines of people walking in a steady course much like lambs to the slaughter. "Can't we just take them off…" Her hands reached up to relieve on made of the ear-pods.

"No. Cause a kind of brainstorm. Maybe an aneurism. We need to shut down the signal." He shook his head. "Human race, for such an intelligent lot, you aren't half susceptible. Give anyone a chance to take over and you submit. Sometimes I think you like it. Easy life."

"Oh?" Mickey couldn't contain himself. "How well that worked for you? Bec and Cathryn. Did they like submitting?" He took a deep breath. "And look now. You lost them. Could be dead for all you know."

The Doctor's demeanor darkened as he looked at Mickey as he took shuddering breaths. But he tried to still himself. To calm. Mickey was only human after all. The girls were his friends and humans, weeell, humans often needed someone to blame when things went inevitably wrong. Still, he couldn't help but admit that Mickey in part had a point.

"I'm doing everything that I can…." His voice trailed as he heard Rose's voice calling out to him.

"Doctor!" Peering out from the alley they had taken refuge in, she examined the multitude. "Oi! Doctor. Over here." She gestured wildly. "That isn't…." She was shaking her head. "That isn't Bec is it?"

He was by her side in a flash, looking at the masses of people trying to focus in on where Rose was pointing. _It can't be….they got away. It can't be them so…._

But he felt himself freeze finally catching sight of of the familiar slim, blonde girl with flashing earpods in her ears. He nearly wanted to shout his granddaughter's name too but with those earpods in, she wouldn't be able to hear him. Why couldn't he sense her through the Bond? He tried to still himself, putting aside any lingering agitation in order to center his mental focus but….he furrowed his eyebrows. Nothing. The Bond was still in its infancy but with this proximity, he should be able to utilise it.

"Doctor, what's wrong?" Rose started. "You can help her, yeah?"

He hissed briefly, narrowing his eyes at the earpods held snug into every person's ears and reflected on his last words. _A brainstorm or aneurism._ He shook his head. "The telepathic Bond originates in the pineal gland," he explained. "It's twice the size than that of a human but the earpods, weeell, it has to be jamming the signal. Their minds are still developing and they don't have the barriers in place to block or filter an unknown transmission." He clenched his jaw. Why hadn't he insisted on any mental exercises earlier? Yes, he wanted to give his girls time. Their animosity and fear of him were evident indicators of how to gauge this relationship but if he insisted on the necessity of some training, they might not all be in this predicament.

But then how either one had picked up a pair of the earpods to use remained questionable. Were they simply curious? Probably a reflection of his nature. An inherited trait. But now…he took a deep breath and the lingering, familiar smell that hovered in the air was what gave him absolute certainty. Cathryn's smell. If they both had seen Bec and Cathryn's smell persisted in the area, she must be in the same proximity, likely heading towards the same location.

Rose simply nodded before it sank in that she didn't understand what he was talking about at all. She'd heard him and Cathryn mention this 'Bond' before, but he still hadn't explained it fully. She'd assumed that it was simply an unusual way to speak of their relationship, of being members of a family, just as she might admit that she had a bond with her mother or that they bonded over a cuppa. The Doctor, however, was speaking about the brain and telepathy.

She knew Bec and Cathryn were resentful towards the Doctor, unwilling to see how he was trying to help them, and if they gave him a chance she was _certain_ he would find some way to help them, to reach their families again, but now she couldn't help but suspect that there was more going on than he'd admitted to her. Before she could follow up, though, the Doctor was asking questions of his own, but she determinedly filed her questions away, along with the others she was beginning to pile up, to ask once they'd finished saving the world. She could feel that a row was coming….

"Where are they all heading?" The Time Lord spoke quickly, focused on saving his family and oblivious to Rose's disquiet. "What's the base of operations?"

"Battersea," Pete admitted. "It's a factory. That's where he's building the prototypes. Why…?"

"We have to get inside." The Doctor's voice was filled with determination. If his granddaughters were inside then nothing would stop him from finding them. "My children are in there and…"

"Children." Pete repeated. "Just how old are you?" The man in front of him looked to be in his thirties. Contrasted with the girls he claimed to have parented who didn't look much younger…. He had overheard Mickey's words to the Doctor, nonetheless disturbed by the implications.

"Oh." The Doctor gave a tiny smirk. "Well over fifty," he answered truthfully. "And that's all I'll say about that." His smile slipped though when he thought about how young his girls were.

" ' _Well over fifty_ ,' " Pete repeated in disbelief, glancing at Mickey who grimaced.

Was it really Bec who was heading inside the factory? But the two knew what was going to happen. They wouldn't think to use those earpods, would they? _No._ Mickey tried to tell himself, concentrating on the task instead even though the feeling of dread still lingered.

"One of those faces," he said to Pete, his voice coming out flat. "Older than he looks." It was about as much as he could manage to keep up with his pretense.

Pete only looked at the Time Lord with all due circumspect. "Now it's alright to risk our lives to save your 'children'-" He paused feeling the grief still fresh. "-but my wife, my Jackie, was taken well before." His throat tightened. Through all their arguments, he still loved her, cared for her, remembered the day they had gotten married those years ago….

The Doctor only looked on in quiet contemplation feeling the brevity of human life. How short it was but in those moments, how far the capacity of humans and what they were able to achieve. A quick look to Rose and then back at Pete before nodding. "Right, then. We both go inside. We work to save them all. Fair enough?"

"Go inside?" the other Mickey challenged. "Through the front door? They'll make you on the spot."

"There's no other choice." Pete agreed. "Go in through the front door. That's where they all been taken for upgrading. With London sealed off and the population being taken inside that place. Find our people and work our way to the control center. I should still have access…."

"I'm going with you." Rose insisted. This was Jackie Tyler they were talking about as well as Cathryn and Bec. She wasn't about to let Pete just go on his own.

"Why do they matter to you?" Pete asked but the Doctor was already shaking his head. His girls were being shuttled inside. He couldn't lose Rose too.

"No," he decided. "Jake, the Mickey's and Mrs. Moore will need you to shut down the signal on the Zeppelin." Weell, in all likelihood, they wouldn't but Rose would be far safer there than she would be with him. His voice became firm and resolute.

"Need me? Just to stare at computers, yeah?" She shook her head. "No. I'm comin'. You can't talk me out of this," Rose argued.

"Maybe not," the Doctor agreed. "But you go with Mickey or you sleep for the next hour inside the van." He closed his eyes as her mouth opened in shock and protest, a little surprised himself at the warning, concluding that dealing with Bec and Cathryn's rebellion was impacting his reactions more that he had suspected. Perhaps his threat was an idle one but he was serious about keeping her safe. He simply couldn't lose another companion. "Rose, please. Not now. If we find them, you know me. I'll do everything I can to save them but each second we stand here arguing…" His voice trailed off meaningfully.

Rose looked at him unflinchingly. "You're not going to back down."

"No," he said softly. "But I have every intent in keeping my word."

Several moments of silence ticked by as Rose released a sigh. "Fine. The two of you…" Rose's voice trailed as she watched Mrs. Moore handing them two dismantled earpods to blend into the crowds at the factory. "For now." She muttered to herself, rubbing her arms. The two Mickey's and Mrs. Moore, another tech were all speaking the same language. About code decryption and accessing the interface to shut down the Cybus system. She knew she would be useless to add anything productive to that enterprise. Still, she followed the three as they started to head to the Zeppelin that boasted the main control signal, while keeping a discreet eye on the Doctor and Pete Tyler as they branched off to the front entrance of the factor. Lagging just enough behind, she managed to duck behind a cover of trees before slowly approaching the spot where the Doctor and Pete were making their final preparations to infiltrate. Keeping her footfalls quiet, she ducked into shadows, until she was directly next to the alley.

Suddenly a hand seized her upper arm as she was pulled towards the two who looked at her with intense frustration.

"Could hear you coming from yards away," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "Rose, what are you doing here? I told you…"

"I don't care what you told me." Rose spoke firmly. "I'm going with Pete Tyler and that's that." She stared at the Time Lord. "Try and stop me, put me to sleep, then we'll have a row Doctor that would put any that my mum and I had to shame."

It was a direct challenge and the Doctor sighed. There was no turning back now. He glanced at Pete. "The earpods I told you to remove. Could I see them?" He would have to work quickly to fashion the earpods that Pete Tyler had used into functional fakes that would fool the Cybermen, but he knew the task would take precious minutes that he hadn't wanted to waste. It would seem all three would be going into the front door and they couldn't afford a single mistake.

xxxxxxxxxx

The 'no wandering off' rule never seemed to apply to Rose for in those minutes as the two groups diverged, Rose had stealthily managed to almost immediately disappear from the four nearly as though she were smoke. The other Mickey was muttering while Mrs. Moore betrayed a grim chuckle.

"Oh, make no mistake. Girl like that. She wasn't staying in one place." The woman smiled. "Reminds me a bit of myself at that age or…." Mrs. Moore considered her current circumstance. Living under an alias. Mrs. Moore, which was the title character of the book _Mrs. Moore and her Passage to India._ Oh, how she loved that character. Seemingly mild on the surface but filled with grit and determination inside. That character made her position well known when she saw how the British were treating Indians in their customary prejudice. The character had been appalled at their mistreatment in the early twentieth century but chose to address it in a way that displayed universal love to both sides. ' _God is love.'_ The title character said. In using that strategy she became her own minor celebrity.

On that same token, Mrs. Moore formerly Angela Price wanted to capture this trait, appalled at what Lumic was attempting to accomplish but attempting to undermine it by using her computer skills to regain their free will and their ability to love. Truly, she thought she acted in parallel to the character she admired even if it came to such a sacrifice that she hadn't seen her family for several months. Such was the price of regaining their own freedom and autonomy.

"Well, she's a lot like me." Mrs. Moore finally concluded, feeling the rush of adrenaline along with a healthy dose of fear. She wasn't stupid. She knew the risks of this enterprise but if it meant her family's safety….

She raised her eyebrows as they hurried along, making careful inroads to the Zeppelin while the Mickey who was a duplicate of their little band's leader that just arrived her pulled out his cellphone and was dialing series of phone numbers.

"Made friends already?" Mrs. Moore asked. "Impressive but Lumic has control of the network. You'll never reach them." Her lips puckered into a frown. "Is it both your Gran?" She knew her Mickey kept a distance in order to protect her from trouble but that didn't mean he worried any less about her.

"No," Mickey shook his head. "Just a couple people I spoke with before the shrill. Was a bit worried and my phone doesn't use the network." It was as much as he could explain. If Mrs. Moore repeated that Mickey had checked in on Bec and Cathryn, then where would he be?

The three others looked at him oddly but the other Mickey just brushed off the statement. "As long as we keep moving." His voice was filled with authority. They were nearing the Zeppelin and then they would have to climb. His duplicate had better keep his call quick.

The phone rang a few times and then Mickey closed his eyes in relief, hearing Cathryn's voice. Altogether a bit out of breath but her voice just the same.

"It's you," Mickey said. "Bloody hell, thank God, it's you. I thought…." He swallowed. "Have to keep this short. You both okay, right? Out of trouble?"

"Barely," Cathryn muttered. "Near miss. Took a car. Heading far north. Are you…" A pause. "You sound…..I don't know. Like you've seen a ghost."

"Maybe I have. Your friend's twin more like. For a moment, I thought…." He cringed. "Had me worried."

He heard their voices and Cathryn muttering to Bec something about her counterpart before she returned to the phone. "Mickey, I'm sorry. It's not her. Not any of us. You need to-"

"Stick to the plan." Mickey finished.

"Enough of your jabbering away," the other Mickey insisted. "We have to go."

"Yeah, I guess….yeah."

"Mickey, remember…you can do this," Cathryn said. "The code. Use the code."

"The inhibitor code," Mickey heard Bec's voice adding distantly

"Me?" Mickey's voice was filled with doubt. "The idiot?"

"You're not an…" Cathryn's voice was low in frustration. "The wavelength for the code. Use the binary nine to-"

The phone was ripped out of his hand and his call disconnected. His counterpart looked at him in exasperation as Mickey stared at him in anger.

"What did you do that for?"

Shoving him back the phone, his counterpart clenched his jaw. "Because we are running out of time. After we cut the signal, you can hook up with them at the nearest pub. But now…."

Briefly Mickey rolled his eyes but didn't correct the other Mickey's mistake. Jake also had his arms folded around his chest, looking at him with impatience. They were right. All four of them had work to do and for now, he knew the girls were alright. On their own in uncharted territory, but, nonetheless, out of the Doctor's clutches. He still had his own tasks to complete.

The group successfully made their way up the ladder to the roof just beneath the zeppelin where the impressive aeronautical device was parked just above the warehouse. Jake glanced at the Mickey he knew before giving a cavalier smirk. "Two guards. We can take them. You think?"

But it was the Mickey who was the inter-dimensional traveler who approached Jake and the other Mickey, summoning up the courage for words he felt definitely needed saying. "You going to kill them?" he asked, almost hesitant.

"Does it matter?" Jake challenged. "Can't unplug them. Doctor said it would kill 'em anyway. Any other bright ideas?"

"Yes," the young man's voice was firm. "Don't kill them."

"And who put you in charge?" the other Mickey demanded spitefully.

"No one. But if you kill them, can't see much of a difference between you and the Cybermen."

"Boy's got a point," Mrs. Moore offered from the back. She wasn't a fighter like the younger men she ran with, so she invariably left any physically arduous tasks for them while she manned the getaway van and provided offsite support and intelligence. However, she found herself just as perturbed by the notion of killing as this other, more idealistic, Mickey.

The two men paused in a moment of consternation until they finally relented. "I suppose we could use these," Jake volunteered reluctantly, holding out two innocuous black bottles in demonstration.

"I wouldn't," Mrs. Moore warned Mickey, when he went to sniff the offered bottle.

Mickey swallowed back his resentment at Jake's condescending smirk. "Smelling salts?" he asked, turning to the older woman who was the only one who seemed to treat him with some respect, just like Bec and Cathryn.

"Ethoxyethane," Mrs. Moore corrected. "One of the first tricks I learned when I started life on the run. It'll knock them out, but we'll only have a few minutes."

They hung back while the two mercenaries crept forward, eyeing the guards who were simply wearing earpods but standing stock still, guarding the entrance to the Zeppelin. What mattered to Mickey was that they weren't converted. They still had a chance and he wanted to give them one.

Jake slowly counted down to signify their attack. "Three….two…..one….go!" Swiftly they ran up behind the guards and held the tiny bottles under their noses, immediately incapacitating them. left unconscious within seconds.

"Has to be more guards on board," one of the Mickeys said once the group stood together again.

"Then we'll be ready for them." Jake's voice was firm and stoic as they made their way into the zeppelin.

xxxxxxxxxx

They incapacitated another guard before quickly finding the massive cockpit. There they found another cyberthing, but the new Mickey quickly recognised and showed the others that it was no danger to them.

"It's dead. I don't think it was ever alive," he explained, knocking on the headpiece. "You see no brain. It's empty. Just a robot suit on display." The others stepped closer to verify his conclusion, then they turned to the task at hand.

"Alright, here's what," the militant Mickey began with practiced leadership. "Jake, you and I sweep the ship, make sure it's clear, then we toss any guards out before they wake and become a problem. Mrs. Moore, you get to work on the transmitter. We'll set our own guard at the entrance and one of us will come back to help."

"What about me?" Mickey asked sharply, angered at being forgotten _again_.

"You seemed to know what you were talking about," Mrs. Moore put in before the other Mickey could speak up. "Fancy helping me hack Lumic?"

The band's leader considered the proposal for a moment then nodded his agreement. He still felt disturbed by and wary of this double, but Mrs. Moore was right, this other Mickey knew as much about hacking as he did, perhaps more, he grudgingly admitted, reflecting on their conversation as they'd approached Lumic's base. There was some secret to this copy and his friends that he intended to get to the bottom of, yet some instinct assured him that they wanted to stop Lumic and his army of Cybers as much as the rest of them. Besides, the zeppelin would be easier to hold with two. "You think you've got what it takes?" he challenged the other Mickey, knowing how he would respond himself.

"Better than you do," the dimensional traveller challenged back, causing the other man to smirk appreciatively.

"Welcome to the Preachers," the group's leader said, offering an honorary membership. He looked over at Jake, pointing to the door with a jerk of his head. As they left, he didn't remind Mrs. Moore to keep an eye on the copy, she was more savvy than the rest of them.

The two hackers made their way to the controls, and Mrs. Moore began typing, searching for a weakness that would allow access into the system. "This is going to take a while," she commented, her eyes fixed on the screen. A moment later, she stepped back, pulling her bag around in front of her and rifling through it. "You want to take point?" she offered, nodding towards the computer station as she pulled out her own mini laptop.

Mickey stepped forward and took over, while Mrs. Moore found a port where she could plug her computer in. "Couldn't get in before, but if I get direct access to the network…"

"You're right," Mickey murmured back in response to her first statement. "I can get into the less secure systems from here, internet, surveillance, power distribution, even transactions and accounts, but everything else…. It will take a take a while to decrypt and recode the transmitter settings, even just an off switch," he concluded with frustration. "Got anything there that'll help?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder and recognising the program code of a trojan.

"Don't get your knickers in a twist," the older woman admonished, adjusting the coding of a premade virus to make it compatible with the system in the hopes that it might allow them quicker entry.

Mickey, however, froze momentarily at one of the camera feeds from the factory that flashed upon his screen. It was gone as fast as he saw it, but he quickly pulled it back up, and a weight fell heavily, landing in the pit of his stomach. Rose and the Doctor were lined up waiting their turn to be converted, her dad - her dad's duplicate right behind them. To Mickey, it looked as though they'd been caught and included with the masses, because he couldn't see how else the Doctor would have allowed them, allowed Rose, to get so close to the front of the line.

Instantly, he left the task of disrupting the transmitter to Mrs. Moore. He couldn't assist until she deployed her virus, and finding a way to help the others became his immediate priority. He swallowed, staring at the feed as he ran through everything he had at his fingertips, before he suddenly got to work, typing frantically.

" _Look out!_ " Mrs. Moore yelled from behind him, and he turned, jumping out of the way just in time as the previously dormant suit lashed out at him.

The commotion brought Jake back into the room, who arrived just in time to witness Mickey goading the Cyberman into punching the transmitter controls, bringing the system crashing down. "Nice," he declared appreciatively, nodding as he watched the acrid smoke billowing out of the suit, but Mickey ran back to the placed he'd occupied before the attack.

"It'll stop people walking in, but it won't stop them forcing conversions," Mrs. Moore said, looking over Mickey's shoulder.

"We've done our bit. Only the army could take 'em out now," Jake put in.

"We've got to shut the factory down," Mickey corrected without looking back. "I've got power distributions, but it's manually operated. Powers's external, though, and we've got internet. You got anything on that computer to access EDF?"

"Access what?" Jake asked perplexed.

"The electricity board." Back when hacking had just been a bit of fun, back before Hendricks, Mickey himself had hacked the electricity giant. He hadn't done any damage, simply wanting to prove to himself that he could, but at his fingertips had literally been power over the city. If they could black out power to the region…

It only took moments for Mrs. Moore to find an old virus from among the many she had acquired and created over the years. "It's a bit out of date, but you seem fast enough on the fly," she acknowledged, loading the program.

A shout of alarm had Jake sprinting from the room again. Mickey hesitated, but went back to work upgrading the virus to sneak through the new security specifications he'd been able to discover.

"We're in," Mrs. Moore confirmed, just as another two cries reached them, one of pain and the other of horror. The two hackers exchanged a glance. "You go," Mrs. Moore directed, knowing she would be no help in a fight. "I'll finish here. Take this," she added, tossing him a coil of copper wires with a few extra electronics soldered on. "Pull the tab, toss it at a Cyberman. It might work," she added, her tone making it equally clear that it might not.

Mickey made it out to see Jake uselessly firing upon an approaching Cyberman, while the other Mickey lay in a heap nearby. He looked down at the device he'd been given, finding a plastic tab at one end of the battery, just like those tabs for electronic toys. He yanked it out, throwing it at the living armour, which, to his surprise, collapsed instantly. Neither he nor Jake moved a muscle as they waited to see if the machine stood again.

"That one of Mrs. Moore's EM bombs?" Jake asked when there had been no change from the suit.

"I don't know," Mickey admitted. "She just gave it to me."

Jake instantly sprinted to the fallen Mickey taking him by the shoulder and pulling him onto his back. Mickey joined him after a moment at the sound of his own voice, surprised to realise that his counterpart was still alive, remembering how the other people he'd seen the Cybermen touch had simply collapsed after being electrocuted. When he saw the blood on the ground beneath the other man, though, he realised that it wasn't the Cyberman that had hurt him, not directly, it had been a bullet that had ricocheted off the Cyberman's armour.

"You did good," the injured Mickey said blankly, addressing Mickey now, having already spoken a few words to Jake.

"So did you." The young man swallowed. "We could have made quite the team. Maybe if…"

"Forget it. Too late. It's on you now. Pick up where I left off. Just tell…" He was drifting.

"Tell what?" Mickey asked.

"Tell gran I'll fix her stair next week. You won't forget will you?" He paused. "You'll look after her?"

"Just like if she were my own. Better in fact," Mickey promised. "Mickey," he tried. "Thank you for…"

The man gave a shallow gasp. "See you in…." The words were meaningless and quiet, and the young man slipped away before those attempted words had even faded from the air. Mickey closed the other Mickey's eyes.

"See you later, my friend," Mickey said. "See you when…." But his voice closed. He was staring at his own body. This was what it would be like when he died. A corpse like this one. He only wondered at the time whether he would be brave like this Mickey or the coward he was fully capable to retreating into.

"The power's out in the factory," Mrs. Moore advised, her voice soft and thick. "They'll have it back in minutes." They had bought Rose, Pete and the Doctor time. Would it even be enough?

xxxxxxxxxx

" _Chamber four is open for human upgrading."_ The voice echoing up out of the factory was coldly mechanical. Rose's heart hammered in her chest, schooling her features as she knew how critical it was to keep her face perfectly still.

"Best not in a hurry for that one, yeah?" Her voice was so quiet that only the Doctor could hear her.

He was worried. His children with the Bond that had become a comforting part of his existence even over such a short time, but he no longer felt their presence. _Am I too late?_ Raising his chin, he swallowed but took Rose's hand from behind him. His already tattered hearts seemed to agonize with each double beat that sounded. But he felt Rose take his hand, offering him a squeeze.

"If they're here, we'll find them. Just like my mu-" She cleared her throat. "Just like Jackie." She clarified for Pete Tyler who was in listening range.

The man glanced at the blonde with curiosity. The implacable draw was there. He felt it. He just wasn't sure as to why. Certainly, this girl knew something he wasn't privy too. But whatever it was, she was insistent on helping him and that…well, that was good enough for him.

His thoughts fell to the Doctor when he demanded they abandon his estate leaving Jackie for lost so easily. He hadn't quite forgiven him for that decision. Cavalier and condescending. Then he had the gall to say they should cease any plan but those put forward to find his family.

 _His family_ ,Pete thought. _But not mine. Where does he get off…_

" _Chamber eleven open for human upgrading_ ," the mechanical voice announced again.

"Just put them on." Pete beckoned to the earpods as they stood just barely out of sight. "Remember, don't show any emotion. No signs. Nothing, okay?"

"Don't worry," Rose assured. "We can do it." She had to. Even if this Jackie Tyler wasn't directly her mother, she looked and acted in such a similar way. She wouldn't sit back and watch her die. Not now. The talk Cathryn had with her came back in spades. Regret filled her mind. Jackie had also talked to her after the investigation of the school had taken place. Oh, she remembered. Her mum had been near tears, telling her that if she continued to travel, every time, the girl that came back, would be less and less her Rose.

 _Was she right?_ Rose asked herself.

"We could all die here," Pete said flatly. "Why are you doing this?"

"To help my friends." Rose kept it simple. "My mum and dad, they would have done the same and…"She glanced down at her shoes. "I think of you as a friend."

They ventured out of their temporary hiding place and joined the lines of people heading up to the various pods for upgrading. Rose glanced around desperately, not seeing a sign of Jackie Tyler, Bec or Cathryn so far. _Please don't let us be too late._

" _Chamber eight open for human upgrading. Chamber one open for human upgrading. Chamber nine open for human upgrading_." The line was moving swiftly and still there was no sign of Jackie or her friends.

"Doctor?" she whispered.

"I can't sense them. Perhaps too much interference through the Cyberweb interface. Along with the network."

Rose nodded slowly as they made a steady progression. It would only be minutes before it was their turn. A Cyberman approached them, speaking to Pete to confirm his identity, but Rose missed the truncated conversation as her attention fell elsewhere. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a familiar figure with blond hair moving towards one of the conversion pods, preparing to enter it as soon as the current occupant vacated it. "Doctor, Bec," she muttered to him urgently, but he gave her no sign that he'd heard her. She should have realised he was simply maintaining his empty demeanour while furiously determining how to save the girl Rose had indicated, but Rose's fear for her friend gave way to panic. " _Doctor, Bec!_ " she repeated with a shout.

All pretense forgotten, Rose suddenly broke free of the line, racing toward her friend being visibly controlled. "Bec!" she cried out. "Bec stop! Don't go in there! You have to…"

She was seized by two Cybermen just before reaching Bec's side and she struggled frantically against their grasp. "You are unprogrammed. You must be restrained," they said lifelessly. "Your upgrade will now be prioritised."

"No!" Rose cried out. "You can't…"

The Doctor was already moving forwards to assist his companion, but he was immediately intercepted as a result of both Rose breaking their cover and Pete's horrified reaction to the Cyberman claiming to be his wife.

"Your earpods are unauthentic," Rose was told. "An injection of nanoprobes will ensure compliance and begin the upgrade process."

It was only a second before a sharp needle found it's way into a major vein in her neck. She tried to pull away, but the machines held her too firmly, and, for a moment, she couldn't help but parallel this forced administration with Cathryn begging and fighting against her own injection. Rose knew the Doctor was only trying to help, she trusted him and hoped the girls would learn to trust him too, but now her perspective on the matter tilted sharply, as she struggled against her own assailant.

"You are afraid," one Cybermen said. "We offer perfection. We will remove all fear and then you will serve, perfected."

For a long moment nothing seemed to happen, and Rose continued to fight back and shout out, but then her muscles seemed to stiffen and resist her every movement. Her very thoughts became sluggish and clouded, while her body seized and stilled entirely. She silently screamed at the thick fog pressing in around her, even as her body slowly straightened and stood erect.

 _No!_ Rose tried to protest as she was led towards a conversion chamber, being made to stand directly behind Bec. _Doctor!_

But at the moment, the Doctor and Pete were restrained faced down by the Cyberman equivalent of Jackie. "You will proceed to follow when her conversion is complete."

 _No!_ Rose failed to scream again. Directly in front of her, she could only watch as Bec mechanically entered the now unoccupied chamber. Just before the door slid closed, sealing the pod closed, a multitude of voices screamed in terror and defiance as they were freed from the control of their earbuds. Inside the chamber, Bec hesitated, then spun on the spot, attempting to flee the chamber, but she screamed in fear, her eyes locking with Rose's for that singular instant before the doors slammed, trapping her inside.

Screams resounded from the occupied conversion chambers while multitudes began to flee. People were pushing past each other and the robotic men who had enslaved them, seeking to escape the nightmare they'd found themselves in. Only Rose stood impassively, outwardly calm as she awaited her conversion as she screamed behind the suffocating fog.

Before her, she could hear Bec banging on the door, shouting and begging for help, help that she couldn't offer. The banging stopped and Bec screamed again, pain now evident in her voice and Rose was sure she was standing witness to the horrendous nightmare of Bec facing conversion, when, without warning, the entire factory was plunged into darkness.

"Abort," every Cyber unit said in unison. "Regain factory power but all upgrades must abort."

Rose was shocked at this sudden change in their environment. What had happened? She was sure the Doctor hadn't done anything, she could still see him restrained in the corner of her eyes. _Mickey?_ she thought. Again, he'd been underestimated, but she knew it was him. He had somehow interrupted the power, maybe by redirecting it all to some secondary system, like the laundry or something in the same way they do in movies, buying them a few precious moments.

But what would they use them for? Was there enough time to accomplish anything useful? And what could she do, still frozen in place by that injection she'd been given?

In the meantime, Cybermen who had once directed the multitudes to be upgraded now closed in on the Doctor and Pete who were still being restrained. The two men were forced back to their feet even as Pete continued to shout his defiance at the Cyberman who had confirmed his identity.

"You're _not_ her. You're _not my Jackie_." It was the worst things that Pete could fathom happening to his wife.

"No, I am a cyber-form. I was once Jacqueline Tyler," the empty voice intoned.

Frozen in her place, Rose heard it too. _Mum!_ She silently choked on the word.

The Doctor rapidly took stock of the situation, every possibility running through his mind. He'd seen what had happened to Rose, could see how rigidly she stood. The cyber armour didn't simply plug into the human brain like a cable into a computer. The nanoprobes she'd been injected with would disburse through the physical structure of the brain, binding themselves to her neural pathways like vines around the branches of a tree, their own signal drowning out the natural electrical impulses between each synapse. The earpods had simply released an overpowering electrical signal through the ear canal and into the brain, transmitting simple instructions and enforcing compliance. That was why the Cybermen had to so actively direct people through the factory. Those people who had escaped, thanks to Mickey and the Preachers shutting down the transmitter, would merely require time for their hearing to heal after having had all that energy poured directly through their ear drum. Rose, however… Her very brain was being overtaken. He needed to halt the process before the nanoprobes began causing damage, began rearranging the very structure of her mind, before they _cybercised_ her… He just had to hope damage hadn't been incurred already.

"Jacqueline Tyler's brain is inside this body," the machine before them was saying, as the Doctor carefully reached his fingers into his pocket for the tiny power cell that held his hope to return him, his companions and his granddaughters to their home. He'd already burnt of so much power earlier in the night, and this time a streamed discharge wouldn't suffice. Instead, he needed to release the energy in a singular burst, powerful enough to fry the nanoprobes infecting Rose. Except, he had no equipment and no time to moderate the burst. Saving Rose could burn the tiny cell out, effectively killing his ship and trapping them forever in a world where they didn't belong.

The Doctor didn't hesitate.

At the discharge, which acted the same as an EM pulse, the Cybermen collapsed around them, and Rose along with them as control of her body returned to her. The Doctor ran to her, helping her to sit up, but her focus was entirely on the machine that had claimed to be her mother. She shakily pulled herself away from him, stumbling forward through the fallen metal bodies to the one that held her gaze.

The Doctor instantly turned his attention to the sealed door behind him, where his granddaughter had disappeared from his view only minutes earlier. The door had been electronically bolted in place, and not even his sonic could shift it until power was restored. " _Bec!"_ he called through the metal division, trying to be heard both through the barrier between them and through the deafness that would likely now be afflicting her. "Bec, can you hear me?"

"Yes," a small, pained voice whimpered back, barely loud enough to carry through the barrier. The Doctor both sighed with relief even as he panicked slightly. The Bond still hadn't re-established itself, and he even couldn't feel an echo from her as he reached out. Was this merely a temporary telepathic deafness that resulted from the signal that had been channelled into her mind, similar to the deafness her ears were suffering? Or had her conversion already irreversibly begun? He hoped, whatever she had suffered, that he would be able to reverse it, that it wasn't too late.

"Bec, I'm sorry, I'm very sorry, but I need you to tell me: are you hurt? Has the machine changed anything?" he asked urgently, needing to know how dire her situation was, whether he could still save her...

"It's got me. The clamps are tight," he heard her whimper. "It cut me, but I don't think it's deep."

"Are you bleeding? How much blood is there?" the Time Lord demanded sharply.

"It's only welling at the wound a little. It's not flowing. But it really stings. Can you get me out?" came the hopeful little voice.

"I can't get you out until the power's back. Do you trust me, Bec?" he asked. At the thought of power, the Doctor quickly assessed the massive machine she was trapped in. He needed power to get through the door, but there was every chance that once the factory came back online her conversion would simply resume, or terminate….

"Yes?" the small voice answered again.

"I'm going to come back. I'm going to get you out. I'm not going to leave you here," he vowed to her loudly as he moved around the chamber until he reached the surge box. It was a quick task to disconnect most of the couplings, deliberately damaging them in such a way that it couldn't be quickly restored by the Cybermen.

"Don't go," he heard his granddaughter's voice beg, and he sped back to the door, leaning close to it as he gave her what comfort he could.

"I need to get the power back so I can get you out. I _will_ come back for you. You have my word," he promised again.

"Doctor!" Rose cried out, kneeling next to Jackie's prone form while she looked back at him. "Please, you have to do somethin'. You can, yeah? Find her body, put her back."

The Doctor only looked pained as he stepped away from the chamber that held his granddaughter and moved closer to crouched by her side. Rose had to watch her mother being turned into this. It was a fate he never wished for her to endure. "I'm sorry, Rose. I'm so sorry, but it's not her anymore." He knelt beside Jackie, resisting the impulse to immediately run repower the station. As imperative as that task was, he couldn't dismiss the opportunity he had before him, and Bec's answers reassured him that he had time enough for this. "Although, there's something else I might be able to try." He removed his sonic, bending down, aiming at the Cyberman logo printed on it's chest.

"What are you doing?" Rose asked, torn between horrified and hopeful.

"Know your enemy," he explained, not looking up from the task he'd given himself.

"She wasn't our enemy," Rose said bleakly, wrapping her arms around her head.

"That's my _wife_ you're talking about!" Pete snarled at the same time, instinctively defending the woman he still loved as he as his heart refused to accept the evidence of the lifeless metal form before him.

The Doctor placed a hand on Rose's arm while looking over at Pete, speaking to both of them in the same measured tone. "Jackie Tyler wasn't our enemy but the Cybermen are. This isn't Jackie Tyler anymore."

He gave them a long moment for his words to sink in, but he knew that time was pressing, for all of them, so he soon turned back to the metal suit before him. He dug his fingers into the panel, using his sonic to unlock the connections inside, then he held the metallic organ aloft, inspecting it before setting it aside. "Heart of steel, but look." He reaching into the armour then lifted his hand to show the sinewy strings of white goop that was threaded through the machine.

"Is that… What is that?" Rose asked, unable to say the words herself and feeling sickened at the impending answer.

"It's living tissue," Pete answered with a hollow voice. _Jacks! Not Jacks!_ his thoughts roared in disgusted and terrified fury, unwilling to accept that his wife could have been… Bile surged at the back of his throat. It wasn't her. It _couldn't_ be. It was a lie. A trick. _Not my Jacks!_

The Doctor held his tongue as he continued his inspection, out of respect for the others' grief and disgust. Even he felt somber at the death of the woman so much like the Jackie Tyler he knew. He pushed those concerns aside, however, when he suddenly recognised the function of the device he'd been inspecting.

"An emotional inhibitor," he explained to the others. "Stops them from feeling anything."

"Stops them feeling?" Rose repeated questioningly with a small shake of her head.

"It's still got a human brain," the Doctor clarified. "Imagine its reaction if it could see itself. Realise itself inside this thing. It would go insane."

"But that's my… That's Jackie," Rose said, her voice hollow and flat and yet filled with the deepest disgust and grief. "They take away her feeling, then they take away her being... _her_."

"They have to, or they'll see for themselves what they've been turned into," the Time Lord explained gently, a wave of his own incredible despair overcoming him, freezing his hearts to the core. Would this be how he found his girls too?

"Why am I cold?" the Cyberman that was Jackie Tyler started to speak.

"Oh my God," Pete gasped. "But it was dead." He shook his head. "It's not dead."

"We broke the inhibitor," the Doctor said quietly looking at his dear Rose while tears flooded down her face. He reached out and covered her hand with his own, closing it on her fist and silently offering what comfort he could.

"Pete, I'm so cold..." the Cyberman said in its inflectionless voice.

"Do you remember your name still?" the Time Lord asked gently.

"Don't be daft. Of course I remember my name," the robotic voice answered. It might have been funny if it wasn't the exact opposite.

"Jacks," Pete whispered agast, horror and despair waring in his tone as he could no longer deny the truth. "I'm here, Jacks. I'm right here," he offered soothingly. He glanced uselessly at his hands. What could he do? He couldn't hold her hand, could he? Her soft hands were gone, cut off and discarded in favour of metal. He looked back up at the dark empty eyes in the helmet, feeling like that dead stare was fixed unerringly on him. "I want to help. Tell me what I can do to help," he begged, his voice so thick it was like a heavy weight in the air, upon his chest...

"It hurts, Pete," Jackie said rhythmically, her computerised voice hiding the pain her words held. "It's so cold."

Rose's vision blurred, obscured by tears. It was too late to save her. Much too late. She knew that far too well. She knew that she'd never met this woman before today, and yet here was her own mum, dying right in front of her, just as her own dad had done. "It's alright. The Doctor is here. He's going to help you."

The Time Lord looked up at his companion at the sound of her wet and broken words. His hearts lurched at her pain, as he watched her unsuccessfully try to wipe her cheeks dry. How he wished he could protect her from this heartache, but her grief just made him dread the fate of his own precious children, Bec trapped in an upgrading chamber behind him and Cathryn still unaccounted for. He cried out to them through the Bond, needing their mental touch to reassure him of their wellbeing, needing to know that Cathryn was alive and safe, but he felt not even the faintest echo in return. His mind was as empty and alone as it had been since Gallifrey had fallen.

"I'm so tired. So cold and so tired."

The blonde could only swallow as she wrapped her arms around her stomach. "Doctor…." she pleaded, pulling the ancient man out of his own despair.

"Sorry," the Doctor said with untold loss and compassion in his tone, lifting the sonic to the internal workings of the suit, preparing to shut it down once and for all. "You sleep now, Jackie. Just go to sleep." The shrill sound of the tiny screwdriver reverberated through the air around them as the lights within the armour switched off, heralding the demise of the woman trapped within.

The three were left simply to stare at the remains of Jackie's body as Rose suddenly gave into tears. "She wanted to die. It hurt so much she wanted to die." She didn't think she would ever put that horrific notion out of her mind.

In that moment, the Doctor put his arm around her. "I'm so sorry, Rose. But….she wasn't your mother. Our Jackie Tyler is still where you left here. All safe and sound."

"How could that matter?" Rose asked blankly. "She wanted to die."

The three only barely staggered up when multitude of Cyberman suddenly marched in around them.

"Take them to Cyber Control," one of the Cybermen ordered. This time there was no blackout to act as a reprieve and the small power cell appeared dead in the Doctor's hand. They were forced out of the factory and finally into the main control room of Battersea, forced to wait to face the host of this particular chaos, Lumic himself.

All the while, the Doctor's mind never ceased racing with plans and possibilities. He was simultaneously considering how power might be restored to the factory, or what he might have to do to to ensure such; how much harm had come to Bec and whether he could undo the damage; the fate of his other child, Cathryn; how to use the weakness of the emotional inhibitors against the Cybermen, and; how he, Rose and her father's duplicate could escape their current predicament. He was sure he could utilise that small band of hackers, but, not only would contacting them without raising suspicion be difficult, with the power down and the system offline, the benefit they could provide him with was limited.

As the Doctor ran through his plans, that little team were also arguing the situation in the zeppelin above them.

"With the power down, there's no more we can do," Jake was arguing. "We're useless. We're _worse_ than useless. We're sitting ducks, now that we've lost those cameras." There was no mention of how they'd only had access to the factory's surveillance thanks to Mickey in the first place.

"Rose and the Doctor are still in there," Mickey argued back. "We're not going anywhere until they come out again."

"Who put you in charge?" Jake raged, angered that this punk thought he could take over simply because he had the same face as their Mickey… "For all you know they're already dead."

"But, they're not," the outsider countered. "You don't know the Doctor. This is what he does. He'll get Rose, get them all out."

"Whatever their status, this is the best place to be," Mrs. Moore put in, once more the calm voice of reason. "They couldn't have traced us before the power went out, and we already know this is a prime position to get into the system when the computers are back online. Besides, if we're compromised, we have a getaway vehicle, of sorts."

Jake reluctantly agreed, returning to his post by the door, struggling to keep his composure and restrain his anger so soon after the death of his closest friend.

"Thank you," Mickey acknowledged at the woman's support.

"Let's just hope your Doctor is as good as you say he is," she told him seriously. "If he isn't, it's not just London that's going down, it will be the world."

Mickey silently nodded, wondering how much further this could spread if her fears came about. He'd caught a glimpse of how wide and wonderful the universe was since the Doctor had come into their lives a little over a year before. And if this universe was anything like their own…

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 **Authors' note:**

 **Here we are, we are: the next installment in the Pete's world debacle (soon to be upgraded to catastrophe). :-)**

 **As ever, thank you for your kind words and encouragement. We really do appreciate the support you all give us. Some of you may have noticed that I've tried to be better with responding to reviews (sorry there *blushes*). If there's anything I've missed previously that you wanted an answer to, please don't hesitate to PM me directly.**

 **A special thanks to our friends, LovelyAmberLight, Fan Fictional Authoress and Almaydnis Rayne, who have been with us every step of the way. Thank you guys. It means a lot to us. :-)**

 **Until next time, keep out of trouble, y'all! And don't step into any strange blue boxes...**

 **azaadin & emptyvoices**


	13. There, but for the Grace

**Chapter 13: There, but for the Grace**

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Mickey's fingers were flying across the work station he had access to. He managed to disable the power but only briefly but they were flying blind, so to speak. He hadn't wasted that time either, searching through the files on the tiny laptop with Mrs. Moore for whatever it was Cathryn and Bec had tried to tell him - an inhibitor - in the hope of making the work in the system that much easier when the power came back.

He swallowed hard as he struggled to gain access to the local hub server. If he could turn on the cameras in the Cyber Control room, he could visualize the primary access server section, which Lumic was controlling.

"So?" Jake pressed from his position where he was guarding the rise of other possible Cybermen. "How's it coming?"

"Just hold on," Mickey hissed at Jake before turning to Mrs. Moore. "Okay, alright. I've logged on to Cyber Control. Managed a sub root file into the core database but their firewall…." He shook his head. "Trying to use an EICAR test file to trigger their automated antivirus response." He looked fiercely at his screen. "If we can do that…"

"Trojan horse," Mrs. Moore agreed. "Non malicious file that won't spread to other machines but tricks the system into thinking it will."

"Like a bomb threat where someone leaves an empty suitcase?" Jake had to verify. He was resting the success of his mission on an alternate Mickey and Mrs. Moore. What if something went wrong? What if….?

"Exactly that," Mickey said. "Shoots out all kinds of alarms. Triggers fail safes even though it's not a virus. It only looks like one. Similar container." He looked vaguely pleased with himself. With downed cameras, it must look like utter haywire inside the facility. Then adding a false virus to the mix would send the Cybermen looking at the very wrong place.

It was in that turmoil, he garnered access to the cameras he needed manually working his way into the feed. Lucky for him, the video wasn't as heavily guarded behind the firewall as the inhibitors were. And that was no easy task despite the fact that he had been reminded twice today of the very code he needed, first by Pete Tyler and then by Cathryn and Bec.

The Cybermen operated on multiple servers. While he might shut down the local servers, unless any trouble presented itself, there were at least three to four other servers located on different hubs on the network. The disruption code, once he formulated it, would take time to trickle down from one facility to the next. He was already writing out the crack or serial code using 'Binary Nine' as the access point to where the inhibitor code was stored. But once he wrote the disruption code, the next part would be activating it in all the servers.

He glanced up at the monitor, to look at the cameras, checking their progress and the relief he felt hit him sharply.

"They're alive!" he exclaimed. "The Doctor and Rose. There they are!"

"Thank God for small favors." Mrs. Moore gave Mickey a brief nod, sharing his enthusiasm. She also was relieved Pete Tyler entirely in one piece.

"Never mind them." Jake was brusque. He only just met the Doctor and Rose. To be honest, he hadn't been terribly impressed. "What the hell is that thing?" He was staring at Lumic who had fully converted into a Cybermen complete with his wheelchair still looking every inch as the one in charge.

"Oh, shhh. I'm working over here," Mickey muttered. "Can you get sound?" he asked Mrs. Moore.

Immediately, her fingers flew over a keyboard and suddenly the voices of the Doctor, Rose and Pete filled the room. The young man for a moment could scarcely breathe at the sight of them, all looking as if they had been through hell and back.

"Let's just still hope this Doctor is still as good as you say he is," Mrs. Moore said. "We can't shut down the frequency relay from here but the inhibitor code has to be activated in the core file which means…." She shrugged.

"The Doctor has to find it. Turn the disruption code on." After a moment deliberating the matter, Mickey decided. Slowly, he pulled out his mobile and started to send out a message. One he hoped the Doctor would understand.

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The Doctor was aggrieved, angry and impatient. Only just downstairs, this Lumic was wielding control of a facility which had his granddaughter trapped in one of the conversion chambers. His breath kept catching so hard that he had to engage his respiratory bypass as he listened to this once human being so desperate for life transformed into a machine whose voice was utterly robotic. Void of emotion.

"I will bring peace to the world," Lumic said. His voice completely flat. Whatever persuasion he was attempting to use was lost on three visitors who were brought to his attention as his compelled audience. "Everlasting peace, and unity and uniformity."

The Doctor closed his eyes, inhaling through his nose. "My granddaughter. You have my granddaughter down there. Did you know she can play the guitar? Quite by ear, I can tell you that. I've listened to it. Bec and Cathryn. Rebecca plays and Cathryn sings along. They've got something you don't, sooo….what do you think that is?" he posed as Lumic remained silent. "No answer? Well, I'll fill you in. That's _imagination_. So, what about that?" He furrowed his eyebrows into a dark glare of accusation towards Lumic. "The one thing that lead you here. Imagination. And you're killing it. Eradicating it. Just dead."

Lumic paused, mentally checking his equipment in some mild consternation. The main power was still down and only a few computers were working, as only the central systems were prioritised when the backup generator was activated. The server had to do a complete system reboot that would take several minutes. Whoever this individual was, he was dangerous and the most frightening fact of all, that is, if he could feel fear, was that he didn't know who he was facing. With the computers down, he had no way to download any information they may have held on this antagonist. More direct and primitive methods would be required to gather the necessary information to properly assess this inconvenience.

"What is your name?"

"I'm the Doctor," the Time Lord hissed between clenched teeth.

"A redundant title," Lumic countered. "Doctors need not exist. Cybermen never get sick."

The old alien jumped to his feet. "Yeah, but that's it! That's exactly the point!" His voice radiated despair. "Oh, Lumic, you're a clever man... I'd call you a genius, except I'm in the room. My granddaughters might be here too. Look at what you've done to them. They shouldn't even be compatible, but you…" The words choked in the Doctor's throat. "But still everything you've invented, you did to fight your sickness, a bit like I tried to do for my girls - saving life in any way possible. And you know what?" He paused. "That's brilliant. That is so human. But once you get rid of sickness and mortality than what's there to strive for?" He rocked back on his heals. "Eh?" He pressed his lips together. "The Cybermen won't advance. You'll just stop! You'll stay like this forever. Completely static. Not progressing. A metal Earth with metal men and metal thoughts. Lacking the one thing that makes this planet so alive." He exhaled loudly. "People. Ordinary, stupid, brilliant people."

The debate appeared to continue as Rose glanced worriedly at the two blinking cameras in the control center. She hoped Mickey was watching them and at the moment, she rubbed her hands up and down her arms. The image of seeing Jackie Tyler die….cry invisible tears and telling her own husband how cold she felt. Oh, Rose thought she would be killed at that very moment. Was that really also what happened to Bec and Cathryn? Swallowing at seeing the Doctor's face, she hoped not, although she could that tell the Doctor, _her_ Doctor, was in pain. She saw every furrow, every crease in his forehead. _They must have been so scared._

"I could set you all free," Lumic offered. "Would you not want that? A life without pain? You could be one with those already within the collective."

The Doctor's voice became cold as he took a step in front of the two other humans under his protection. Nothing was ever that simple and Lumic's offer of taking away his pain came at too high a cost. "You might as well kill me."

"And me," Pete also declared, the suffering of his wife tearing through him once more. Rose, too, nodded her head as she stepped forward to stand between the two men.

"Then I take that option," Lumic announced.

"It's not yours to take. You're a _cyber_ controller. You don't control me or anything with blood in its heart." The Doctor shook his head in refusal.

Lumic stared him down. "You have no means of stopping me. I have an army. A species of my own."

The Doctor ran his hand over his face, brushed back his unruly brown hair. "You just don't get it, do you? An army's nothing. 'Cos those ordinary people, they're the key." He then glanced meaningfully at the security camera knowing Mickey was watching their progress, giving a nod to the young man. "The most ordinary person could change the world."

Mickey had the faint edges of a smile as he watched through the video camera as he was finishing the final touches of the crack, serial code in the hidden root file Pete Tyler had so obligingly located for them. _'Binary Nine.'_ Now, he just needed to tell the Doctor it simply needed activation. Through his phone, he send a simple list of binary numbers to interact with the disruption code. All the Doctor needed to do was access the main server that was still functional.

"You just don't get it. It doesn't take an army." The Doctor said simply. "Some ordinary man or woman... someone with the courage to stand up for all of us."

Mickey's head jerked up at this sudden recognition from the Doctor of all people. Who knew the Doctor would actually think he was worth more than….. oh, it wasn't the time. He had a job to do.

"All it took for him to find, say, the right numbers... create the right code... say, for for example, for the emotional inhibitor. The code right in front of him." The Time Lord glanced at the camera again. "'Cos even just this ordinary person knows how to use computers these days, knows how to get past firewalls and passwords... knows how to find something encrypted in the Lumic Family Database, under... what was it, Pete? Binary what?" He waved to to Pete in a 'come hither' gesture, asking his contribution.

"Binary 9," Pete offered loudly from behind the back of his hand, trying not to be noticed by the Cybermen while helping whomever the Doctor was talking to through the cameras.

"Your words are irrelevant," Lumic interrupted.

"Talk to much, that's my problem," the Time Lord said with feigned amusement, knowing his behaviour was throwing the the emotionless machine into confusion. "Luckily I got you that cheap tariff, Rose." He looked at the blonde knowingly who raised her eyebrows in confusion. "For all our long chats. On your phone." He glanced significantly at the camera again as he mimed holding a phone to his ear. He knew which systems should be running again, and dearly hoped Mickey was as clever as his girls had given him credit for, otherwise...

"Oh, it's vibrating, yeah?" Rose pulled out the cell phone. "This call for you, Doctor?"

"You will be deleted!" Lumic threatened.

"Yes, delete, control, hash, all those lovely buttons." The Time Lord mocked as Rose tossed him the phone, which he caught in his free hand. "And let's not forget how you seduced all those ordinary people in the first place." He brandished the phone. "By making one bit of technology compatible with everything else, information from one interacting with information with everything else." He glanced at the phone, quickly memorising the seven digit code he'd been sent, as he lingered near one of the active terminals. "Just like this." He gestured to the phone before speedily typing in the code distortion Mickey had transmitted to him, prompting it to activate all throughout the surveys in the entire warehouse.

All hell broke loose as the Cybermen inside the group presumably acting as guard, clutched their heads, sinking to the floor. Two of them caught sight of their reflections and their unearthly cries in their metal suits were a horrid thing to behold as the electronic moans with words that only reflected their excruciating pain echoed throughout the entire Cyber Control center.

The Doctor could only stand, looking at the chaos with a look. A mixture of pain and horrific sadness in his eyes. He was a doctor and there was nothing he could do to ease the agony they were facing besides simply shutting down each and every unit. Rose took a step back, pressing her hands against the wall at the night. She had seen her mother perish the same way. But to see dozens all being tormented at the sudden recognition of their robotic condition was horrifying. One Cybermen was even crying out for his mother.

 _He….or she is a child. Just a child and she….._ She turned and pressed her face against the wall trying to cope with the tears that came to her eyes. It was unfair. That she knew. Everything about this was so terribly unfair.

"I'm sorry." The Doctor's voice was grave but sincerely. There was no false bravado as she heard the tremor in his tone. He hated this. Doing something he completely loathed but taking the necessary measure anyway. He simply couldn't save everyone. _If only…._ He shook his head. He wasn't quick enough going through Pete Tyler's office. He should have known with the headphones and Lumic that something far more sinister was up than just faulty technology but now hundreds would die because he hadn't anticipated this tragedy as quickly as he might have been able to.

And if he did, he might have been able to save Bec and Cathryn. He wouldn't let them leave his side but he turned his back for a moment and then they were gone. He felt the emptiness and the distance of the bond that any Time Lord would feel when their children had ventured somewhere where he couldn't follow.

"What have you done?" Lumic demanded furiously, his previously emotionless voice now coloured with mechanical rage.

"Just gave them back their souls." The Doctor turned on the man who had started all of this. "They can seen what you've done to them, Lumic. And it's killing them!"

Suddenly, explosions started to rent the control room and the three ran from the room only scarcely hearing Lumic calling out after them.

"Delete, delete, delete." The voice was loud and still commanding. The trio entered the hallway only to find the way downstairs blocked by a weeping and hysterical Cyberman.

"Hard to find a way out!" The Doctor exclaimed as he slammed the door in front of the Cybermen who swerved in their direction dangerously. "And Bec!" He said desperately. "She's still downstairs!"

Pete said little, still bitter that his Jackie was considered expendable over the Doctor's sordid relationship with his 'children'. All he had observed of this _Doctor_ …. He'd claimed to be more than fifty, justifying his claim on his 'children', but it seemed to him almost as though the Doctor was a much younger man than his age appeared. His confidence before the upgraded Lumic reminded him of the confidence of youth, believing that nothing could hurt them, not really, and his energy seemed utterly boundless. The only thing that gave him pause were those moment when a moment of wisdom or utter pain shone through him, giving him the demeanour of a man twice his apparent age. The man perplexed him in a very disconcerting way, but, he had to admit, without him, the city would likely have fallen, the world with it.

Mickey, in the interim, was still back at his keyboard as Jake was desperate to leave the vicinity.

"If the Cyber Control facility is going to burn, we have to get out of here too," the young man declared anxiously.

"No," Mickey told him. "Isolated and enacted the fire sprinkler system in the control room. The rest of the facility is still powered down."

"So, now what?"

"We get off the roof just in case. Meet them at the bottom." Mickey told him. He was worried. Mickey knew that helium, which were inside the pressure tanks wasn't flammable but that didn't mean the pressure tanks themselves couldn't explode. And he saw the needle spiking as the pressure demands increased just due to the chaos that was occurring the Cyber Control facility. If the tanks exploded, the Zeppelin would burst like any balloon, causing wreckage to rain down on the city. There would be a fire from the exploding tanks. No. He had to navigate the ship away from that very Cyber Control Facility and create distance before that became a likelihood.

"But, why?" Jake insisted.

"Because right now, we're sitting on a pressure cooker." The young man told his new friend. "Want to wait to see what happens when one helium tank explodes?" He challenged. "Won't be like the Hindenburg but I can promise you, it's still enough to destroy this thing. Who knows what else? We need to get it off the building so the pressure starts to drop." He wondered if they even had a Hindenburg explosion all those decades ago being that this was a parallel universe and grimaced in thought. All those years ago when they used hydrogen instead of helium to power a Zeppelin of this time and the devastation that caused. Not to mention, the radioactivity.

"You sound completely mental. These should be completely safe. Pete said…." Jake struggled to take the wheel from Mickey who simply shoved his hand away causing the other young man to stumble.

"He's right." Mrs. Moore declared. "The gas might not be flammable, but the heat will still cause it to expand. It's much too dangerous, staying here. And we should help them since they helped us. Just this once, we owe them."

And in that very tense silence, did they descend the zeppelin down a few blocks from the entrance to the factory. Mickey knew that the Doctor spotted Bec's duplicate. He only hoped she would be more convincing to the charade. If the Time Lord witnessed for himself that a version of the girls were dead, it would make his work a great deal easier. He was the first one to exit the the Zeppelin and hasten towards the factory. His fast pace had now so quickly turned into a run.

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The Doctor glanced frantically around him while plans and possibilities raced through his mind. He needed to save Bec, needed to find Cathryn. They _could not_ be _lost_. He _refused_ to accept that possibility. However, there still wasn't enough power to get Bec out of the conversion pod, and they also had an enraged Cyberman after them, which, the Doctor had to admit, frightened him slightly more than an emotionless one. A Cyberman who could feel and _hated_ …

Lumic's emotional inhibitor would have been compromised along with the other Cybermen connected to this system hub. If he understood how to feel again, he might be able to more fully use emotions as a weapon, and he'd already told the CyberLumic that he already essentially held his granddaughter hostage.

No, he needed to draw the CyberController away, restore power to the factory and rescue Bec, and that all needed to be done simultaneously. He needed to be in two places at once. He glanced over at Rose and Pete. They needed to split up.

"Rose," he began at high speed, turning to his companion. "You and Pete get back to the factory. Find Bec. As soon as you have even an _inkling_ of power, disengage the lock." He preset his screwdriver and held it out to her as he spoke. "So long as that lock is open, I can get the doors open. _Any_ power. It might not last more than a moment, and it might not be very much. You have to be ready."

"That's alright," Rose said confidently. "Pete and I can handle it, can't we?" she added, shooting a glance to the man so much like her own father.

Pete nodded, resentment still filling him at the Doctor prioritising his own family over any other, but he also couldn't leave anyone, not even these so-called-children to suffer as his Jackie had.

"Take care of her," the ancient creature told the other man, speaking of Rose, before loudly dashing off in the other direction, calling out insults to Lumic as he went to draw the CyberController after him instead of his friends.

Rose watched him go for a moment, even as she began move backwards towards the factory, she wanted to call out to him, to remind him to be careful, to tell him that she cared, to reassure him that they would rescue Bec, find Cathryn, and everything would be okay again. But she held her tongue as he disappeared from sight. He already knew.

"Hurry, Lumic could be here any moment," Pete encouraged urgently.

"Yeah," Rose agreed, turning on the spot, and together they raced back to where this nightmare took a turn for the worst, to where Bec remained trapped and terrified… to where the machine that had once been Jackie lay broken on the factory floor.

As they headed off as the Doctor had directed, he continued through the factory, going just slow enough to ensure that Lumic was still on his tail and not after his companions or granddaughter. He delved deeper into the factory, reaching the lower levels as quickly as he dared, even as he feared that he wasn't fast enough. Bec had been trapped in that pod for too long already. Even if he could save her - _No_ \- even though he _would_ save her, she would have been in pain and alone that whole time, and he still couldn't reach her. The same emptiness clawed at him, the hollowness of death he'd felt since Gallifrey… He'd _seen_ her. He'd _spoken_ to her. However, at every moment he had to fight the urge to fall into despair, as all he felt through the Bond was the silent loneliness of death.

He barged his way into the sub basement, quickly finding his way to the emergency generator and the factories manual power allocations. Now was crunch time. He'd had to keep Lumic close enough that he would keep following, but far enough that he would have the time he needed to work. A brief glance at the schematics helpfully printed on the wall for the electricians who once would have worked in this room, likely some of the first to be upgraded as a perverse reward for their work and loyalty, and he began manually rearranging the cables that fed power into the system. Each connection was laborious, not having his sonic to speed the process, but soon he had all power, everything from the emergency lights to the electricity that had once gone to the essential computer systems, was being directed to the factory, but it still wasn't enough. The power would be distributed across the factory floor, to every conversion pod, spreading the energy too thin to properly power Bec's cage enough to open the door. However, the Doctor had anticipated this. In the factory itself, he would be able to reroute the power to the specific chamber he desired, but - he turned to the generator itself - if he could trip the system, feed it back onto itself momentarily, cause the generator to release one massive surge of electricity, it should be enough for Rose to unlock the path to save Bec. Rose could do it, he knew. He believed in her.

"Your efforts are futile. This world has fallen," a scathing computerised voice declared from behind him, and the Doctor quickly amended his plan and pulled the connection off one end of the cable to expose the wires inside, clutching the thick cord in his right hand. He plugged other end of the cable into the power input of the generator, having already modified it to draw in as much power as was available, then turned to face the man who had sought to save his own life at the cost of the world, taking a slow step towards him.

"You're wrong if you think people will just give in. You're wrong if you think people can't stop you," he corrected the metal man. "You fought your illness, you fought against death, and look at what you've achieved," he said affirmingly. "You are _alive_ , and that's just incredible, it is. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. And I do admire your passion for life, but you have a choice now, Lumic. You're _not_ a machine. You can think and _feel_ , and you've already shown just how clever you can be. Now you can do _so much more_!" the Time Lord emphasised, stepping ever closer. "You can help make the world a better place, focus that passion for life you have on the lives of others, help others to be the best they can be just as you have. But, just as you have a choice, the choice to be a better man, you have to give them a choice too. _Help_ them to be better, don't _force_ them to all be the same."

"You're correct. There is so much pain and death and suffering and cruelty in this world, and I can make it better. I can perfect it," the machine declared. "But you have chosen not to be part of my perfected world, and so you will be _deleted_."

The CyberCommander stepped forward, his right arm outstretched, and landed his hand heavily on the Doctor's shoulder. The Doctor cried out as the electric current ran through him, falling to his knees. While he was more biologically resistant to the effects of electrocution than humans, and the voltage the Cybermen employed was low, only enough as was necessary to kill their victims without compromising their own energy requirements, but even a current intended for human executions would kill him if exposed for too long. He needed to act fast, but this was the possibility he'd planned for.

He brought the exposed wires to his left shoulder, closing his hand around the gauntlet that grasped him so tightly, holding the wires firmly against the metal. Both the machine and the man cried out in pain as the generator's modified input began sucking in the available energy, leeching it from Lumic's power cell. The Doctor silently hoped that, upstairs, Rose was using the boost to free Bec before the power ran out.

A moment later, both bodies slumped to the floor, the flesh sinking bonelessly while the metal dropped with a resounding clang. The Doctor gasped for breath, gasped out of relieve that the physical torment had ended, but Lumic didn't move again. Even had Lumic not been trying to electrocute him, the Doctor had augmented the input so it would have drained Lumic's power regardless, drawing the energy though the highly conductive armour. Lumic's attack had only quickened the process, giving the system the quick surge of energy it needed to power the door to his granddaughter's cage.

He pulled himself upright, groaning as every cell screamed in protest, then glanced down at his palm. The burn from where he'd held the wires directly against the metal gauntlet wasn't a good one - white, swollen, tangled stripes raised against red flesh - but it certainly wasn't as bad as it could have been. He would be able to treat himself sufficiently back on the TARDIS.

Again he forced his aching body into motion, forcing himself to press on despite his need to rest, forcing himself to his granddaughter's side who needed him so much more. The factory passed in a blur, but not because of his speed. When he reached the factory floor, he didn't even spare the energy to be surprised when it was Mickey who walked up to greet him. "Bec?" the Time Lord asked simply.

Mickey shook his head slightly, his expression haunted. "It's not good," the young man told him.

He continued to speak, but the Doctor didn't hear him, drawn as if magnetically, to the now open door of the conversion chamber. His respiratory bypass had engaged immediately after he'd spoken her name, when Mickey's face had answered his question before he'd said a word. When he looked into the chamber, though... The pain he'd felt as Lumic held his shoulder was nothing compared to the agony that now tore through his chest. His granddaughter was alive, listening to Rose's whispered encouragements, but he was too late.

"See?" Rose murmured, glancing up at him. "I told you he was com…" She swallowed. "...was coming back," she tried again, looking back down on the woman before her. It was easier to looked at Bec's ruined form than at the undisguisable anguish that had torn across his features. She'd seen glimpses of his pain when he'd spoken of his people, seen hints of how much Cathryn and Rebecca's rejection hurt him, but nothing compared to the heart breaking despair, the wretched desolation, that she'd seen in that very brief moment. She closed her prickling eyes, but that single image of the Doctor's pain burned through her. She'd _hoped_ ….. But now she knew.

See opened her eyes again, forcing a comforting grin onto her face. "It's okay, Bec. I'm just going out to help Mickey while the Doctor helps you, yeah?" she said gently. If these were her last words to the woman, she would use them to offer hope, to offer some small measure of comfort.

"Don't go."

The sound of his granddaughter's fearful whisper prompted the broken Time Lord into motion, and he slowly stepped closer to where she could see him. She'd told him that the clamps that held her were tight... but there were no clamps. Her arms and legs had been stripped down and machinery was being built around her skeletal structure. She couldn't move because the connection between brain and suit was one of the last to be instilled, so the victim couldn't use their mechanical strength to resist or abort the upgrade process. She couldn't even lift her head to see what had been done to her. Her abdomen had been removed, a power cell visible in place of her belly that would have matched the one he'd drained to save her. It was this that was keeping her alive now. The cell was shielded, he's guessed as much when the EM pulse hadn't completely shut Jackie down, but now he could see the shielding clearly for himself.

His analytical mind continued to take in details, almost as an escape from the reality he had to face.

 _Her_ face was yet untouched, the head being the last part to upgrade, but her skin was pale, bloodless. Blood would have been an inconvenience when grafting the suit to her; it would have been purged early and replaced with the preserving fluid that stank sweetly in the chamber. She didn't realise that she didn't need to breathe, the preserving fluid and power cell being all that was required now to keep her alive, but she did so, both out of habit and to speak. The effort of filling her redundant lungs seemed immense for her, struggling to use her diaphragm with the few organs that had yet to be removed and the large power cell in the way.

Like Rose, Bec would have been dosed with nanoprobes, but these would have been disabled along with Rose's which was why she could still think for herself. The nanoprobes were likely why he could hear no echo of her through the Bond, no matter how he tried. The augmentation of the physical structures of her brain had already begun, even though she shouldn't have even been compatible, destroying her developing telepathic ability in its infancy.

 _Infancy_ ….

She was just a _child_. So young. _Too_ young. Not even fifty years old.

And one man's _greed_ had _destroyed her!_

Anger flared within him for a moment, but his grief quickly overwhelmed it again as he properly met his granddaughter's terrified grey eyes.

"Can you help me?" she whispered, hope and despair filling her voice with equal measure.

He smiled down gently at her. "I can," he reassured her. "Of course I can. I will do everything I can for you," he promised gently, knowing there was only one thing he could do.

He spied his screwdriver on the floor, where Rose had obviously dropped it when she'd seen… He swallowed as he picked it up, hating the weight of it in his hand.

" _Please_ ," she begged him, so meekly, so pitifully, and it rended his hearts.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Bec. I should have done more. I should have kept you safe." He bent down and placed a soft kiss on her cold forehead. "But, everything that happened, everything I did…" He shook his head, fighting to contain his grief. He needed to stay strong, for her, just for a moment longer. "I did it because I love you, Bec," he told her, pouring the emotion out to her through the empty Bond, hoping she could feel it even though he couldn't feel her. "Just know that I love you."

He could see the realisation in her eyes, the fear, as she understood what he was about to do.

" _Please!_ " she begged again desperately, but, before her pleading could shake his resolve, he activated his sonic, shutting down the power cell and ending her suffering.

Then he was engulfed with his own.

Outside the conversion chamber, the silence was shattered by the roar of the Doctor's grief, and Mickey was shaken to his core.

All he'd seen and thought he'd understood since the Doctor had acquired Cathryn and Rebecca were utterly belied by the Time Lord's palpable pain. Hearing him mourning without restraint even had Mickey questioning whether they'd done the right thing, wondering if he should comfort him with the truth.

 _No_ , he reminded himself, turning away from the chamber where he could hear the Doctor bearing his soul. This was Bec and Cathryn's choice, not his, and not the Doctor's.

The sight of Bec, torn apart and begging for help, filled him again, an image he knew would never leave him. He'd been so afraid for them when he thought it was really them entering the factory, and so relieved when they'd reassured him that they were safe. He'd never allowed the guilty thought to fully coalesce, but he'd been pleased that there had been an alternate to his friend to confuse the Doctor's search.

After seeing her, though, seeing what he'd wished upon her….

He felt dirty. He felt dirty and vile and disgusting. How could he have wished something so heartless on her. She was innocent. She wasn't a part of Lumic, and she wasn't a part of them, and yet the _horror_ he had wished upon her… He'd thought he was better, a better man, but, just like Lumic, he had been willing to sacrifice another life for the ones he deemed important. He realised that he hadn't even truly considered Bec's double a real person until he'd seen her in that chamber. He was as much a monster as Lumic.

He wandered over to his hastily discarded jacket, the one the Preachers had given him after shredding his own clothes in search of any espionage equipment, any clue to understand his presence among them and his resemblance to their young leader. He'd managed to regain his own and Bec's phones, although the impression that he'd gotten was that he'd been initially allowed that dispensation simply to give the Preachers the opportunity to learn who he may have been in contact with. That scrutiny had dwindled as their trust had grown.

Both phones were still in the jacket, as the pockets of the trousers he'd been given were too small to keep them in without risk of them falling out, but the jacket had been too uncomfortable to keep on in the factory. The conversion equipment and various furnaces made the air in the massive room stifling enough, but it had been after seeing the state of his friend's double that he'd had to toss his coat to one side, feeling physically ill...

He shakily pulled out the phone he'd been given, Bec's phone - Did that Bec have a phone? Was her name even Bec? He never even thought to ask her… - and he typed a quick message to follow the last. He'd sent them a text that he'd joined Rose and Pete who were looking for Bec's double, warning that their ruse might be discovered. He looked back over that message feeling revolted at himself, even though the next was hardly better.

 _She died. You're clear._

He glanced almost blindly around the desolate factory while the phone sat heavily in his hand. He couldn't see Rose. He didn't know if she'd gone to the Doctor or elsewhere, but Pete was still sitting silently beside the Cyberman that had been his wife. _She'd suffered the same torture as Bec_ , Mickey realised belatedly. His eyes wandered over all the fallen machines around them, machines that had once been people, people that had been torn apart even as they lived.

 _I'm sorry_ , he silently whispered to the broken Bec in his mind's eyes, to all of those who'd died because in the same way. The Doctor's grief filled the air, like a pervasive weight of pain and despair, and Mickey couldn't help but add the soft sound of his own mourning to it, mourning the woman he hadn't known, and all those who had died along with her.

xxxxxxxxxx

Cathryn's phone buzzed, announcing the receipt of a message, but it went unheeded as the two girl's argued with one another.

"I told you to stop at that last station," Cathryn said. "We're going to run out of gas."

"It's not _gas_ , it's _petrol_ ," Bec corrected scathingly. " _Oxygen_ is a gas. The air is lots of gases mixed together. _Gas_ is what we're filling the car with by using the petrol _up_."

" _Gas_ is short for _gasoline_ , which is what _petroleum_ is called _after_ they've refined it so it can actually _work_ in cars," Cathryn replied, equally scathingly. "You put your _petrol_ in the car and you'll do far worse than if you used _gas_."

" _My_ petrol?" Bec laughed humourlessly. " _Your_ gas. Yeah, maybe you're right about it's potency," she insulted.

"Look - gas, petrol - We still need to stop to refuel," Cathryn repeated yet again.

"Who's driving, eh?" Bec demanded. "Who's been watching the petrol gauge since we got the car? The tank is low, that's very observant of you, but we've got a good hour of fuel to go before we need to find a petrol station." She paused for a moment, then added petulantly, "Maybe we can put some more _gas_ in the tyres while we're there."

"Oh, for the love of… Can we at least stop to get something to eat?" Cathryn tried, pulling out her trump card.

"No, we can wait for the next stop. I want to get as far away from him as possible."

"I want to get as far away from _you_ as possible," Cathryn retorted.

" _Really?_ " Bec asked in mock incredulity. "Is that really what you want? 'Cause I can drop you off _right here_ and you can go back to _Grandpa Doctor_ -"

" _LOOK OUT!"_

Bec swerved wildly at the warning, managing to avoid the car she'd almost rear-ended as she'd absentmindedly increased speed as they bickered, narrowly missing the car beside them too, but only through the quick reaction of the other driver. A moment later, they'd pulled off the side of the road in the breakdown lane, Bec shaking violently at the potential disaster that had barely been averted. They sat in silence for a long time, until Bec finally broke it.

"Maybe we should stop for a bit," she suggested falteringly, hesitantly repeating Cathryn's earlier suggestion as if it was a new idea, conceding to the wisdom of her suggestion.

Cathryn nodded, as she ran the events of the last few minutes through her head. They had been getting more and more frustrated with each other as the trip progressed, this was just the icing on the cake. She looked down at her arm and rubbed the general area where she the implant to be, suddenly understanding what was taking place.

"I'm sorry. It's not us," she explained. "It's these injections, these implants. It's withdrawals."

Bec glanced down at her own arm, nodding in understanding, but still too shaken to think or speak properly.

"If we know…" Cathryn continued. "We should be able to… to just concentrate, to just… to control our emotions. We just need to be more careful…"

"Yeah," Bec agreed feebly. She looked at the wheel before her, hesitant to touch it as the fear and panic from minutes ago continued to pulse through her. She considered asking Cathryn if they could swap, but the car they'd chosen had a manual gearbox and Cathryn had admitted earlier that she could only drive automatic. They'd been careful to chose a smaller car, that was only a recent model in the hopes that it would give them the best milage. Like the rest of this world's technology, the cars were more advanced from what they knew too, more advanced even than the cars in their home universe which had been a few years ahead.

Had they been ahead because time ran faster in their own world, just as Pete's world ran faster than the Doctor's? Or did they just seem ahead because of time travel? Bec shook her head minutely at the thought. She never could have believed that this was possible, that time travel could exist in the same manner as on the telly. That the Doctor….

She stifled the thought. She'd always enjoyed theories of physics - time travel, multiverse - but she had never truly put much stock in it beyond interest's sake. She enjoyed documentaries that explored scientific possibilities, or ones on the origin of thought, like how modern maths developed through the ages, even though the maths itself held little interest for her. Now, though, trapped in an impossibility that those documentaries had speculated on, she felt equally naive and surreal. And the Doctor….

That was the worst. She knew he wasn't perfect, she _hated_ the Mars episodes, and yet she still couldn't believe what he'd done, what he'd been doing. He was supposed to save them, to help them get home, not…

"Bec," Cathryn said softly beside her, pulling Bec out of her reveries. She knew Bec was exhausted, they both were. It had been a long night, and the last four hours of it had been simply sitting in a car. "I'm sorry, but we need to keep going."

"We need to get a new car," Bec said, coming to a decision, as she slipped the car back into gear and began to look for a place to reenter the traffic. It would be easier than trying to get fuel - the amount of cars on the road, people fleeing, there might not be any fuel available - and they would be able to choose a car which they could share the driving of.

She saw a sign as they continued on their way, an exit a few kilometres ahead that would take them to Blackpool. She grinned to herself in amusement, thinking of the musical murder mystery she'd seen so long ago, in which David Tennant had starred. The thought of the Doctor singing and dancing like that… Yes, Blackpool would be a good place to find themselves a new car.

xxxxxxxxxx

An eternity later, the Doctor left Bec's side, moving a few steps closer to the human family that was all that remained to him. Rose had been with him for some time, and he'd clung to her quiet comfort even as he clung to Bec broken body. Even the pain from his hand wasn't enough to make him let her go. When he'd let that first expression of grief run its course, she'd given him the privacy with his child's lifeless form that he needed when he'd asked for a moment alone. He would need to prepare her a proper pyre, one befitting a Time Lord. He would not simply employ the available incineration the Cybermen had used for their rejected stock, a callous method of disposal, that would be an insult to her. But first he needed to learn what had happened to Cathryn.

Had she too been chosen for upgrade? In his own universe, they would have been rejected, but perhaps there was something fundamentally different about Lumic's form of conversion from the one he'd known. It was a frightening possibility, Cybermen with the ability to incorporate more than just the human subjects they'd originated from. Cybermen were a pestilence in the universe, but if it could spread to every species…

Or was it simpler than that? From what little he could discern, this earth had yet to establish proper contact with other races throughout the galaxies. Had Lumic simply included no method of assessing biological compatibility beyond establishing this physical health of the subject to be converted because he hadn't known the necessity of it? Bec and Cathryn, apart from being slightly malnourished, would have passed such an examination with flying colours. And with their superfluous organs removed to make way for the required hardware… only their brains and central nervous system were indispensable to the upgrade, and it may have been that the incompatibility wouldn't have been discovered until the system attempted to unite both suit and mind, an integration that had yet to take place in Bec's conversion.

The silence of the Bond screamed to him, the empty place his children once held, his family before them. There was no comforting whisper of other minds, no trace of even the distant existence of his people. He was bereft again, alone, as he had been since Gallifrey, since he ended it, ended the war. And, once more, it was his fault, his cursed hands. They were just children, his responsibility, his to protect and cherish, but he'd failed them, just as he'd failed his people. The suffocating silence was worse than what he'd known before. It was just as empty, just as hollow. He'd carried on, as was his burden, his punishment. He'd deserved the desolate isolation, but it was for him to carry on, to attempt in some small manner to fill the void in time his people had left. But losing Bec, losing Cathryn… Despite the heartache he'd felt as he'd tried to nurture them, which was a meagre trifle compared to the immeasurable pain that tore through him now, his little children had been such a blessing to him, such a miracle. He'd begged the universe, both this one and his own, for their safety, they they would come back to him. But the universe didn't care. His own precious little children returned to him, only to be torn away in the worst manner possible. His life, his very existence, was nothing but a cosmic joke to the universe. He only existed to suffer.

With force of will, the ancient creature pushed aside his pain, containing it and sealing it as he was able. He still had to find Cathryn, to determine what had become of her, and to attend to her remains appropriately. It didn't even occur to him how utterly he'd given up, that not even hope for his second child remained. It didn't even occur to him that he was enacting Lumic's words, words that he'd denied not long previously. Instead, he threw himself into his appointed task, pulling to the forefront of his mind everything he knew about the Cybermen, as well as everything he had seen and could discern of Lumic's variation of his old enemy, determining the best place to begin his search.

He glanced between his companions. Pete was still mourning silently beside his wife. Rose knelt beside him, looking just as devastated at the death of the woman who was almost her mother. _There, but for the grace_... The old human adage floated through his thoughts. Rose had escaped the bereavement he himself suffered.

He turned from the not-a-family, his eyes falling on the young man he'd underestimated for so long. Mickey had been a friend and comfort to his girls when he couldn't be. The memory of their collaboration when they'd pulled a prank on him whispered through his mind - salt in the sugar jar. He could see the grief on Mickey's face. He had genuinely cared about his girls, it wasn't just a petty jealousy that Rose had chosen travelling though the stars over hot chips and, ultimately, it was Mickey who had saved himself and Rose, along with the rest of the city, by his quick work in shutting the emotional inhibitors down, destroying the Cybermen from the inside. Something sat uneasily with him, but he set it aside to consider another time.

"Mickey," he called softly, now knowing there was more to the man than he'd ever suspected. Mickey was someone he could rely on. "Come with me. I need to find out what happened to Cathryn."

The young man turned at the sound of his name, quickly secreting Bec's phone in his shallow pocket. Mickey, who had often been accustomed to being overlooked or considered the idiot in one callous remark or the other, was now being treated with a new kind of disconcerting respect he hadn't expected to achieve, certainly not by the Doctor who looked at him with haunted but ancient eyes that no longer displayed any evidence of ridicule. No. Now, in this gruesome price he alone felt he contributed to with this Bec's horrible demise, now he was taken seriously. It was…..he felt tears come to his eyes. The young man couldn't help it. Having seen his own double die right in front of him and then Bec…..he released a shuddering breath as he looked down at her mutilated corpse but only focusing on one thing. Her eyes. They were still open. The pupils fixed and dilated, eyelids that only managed to slide half shut. He closed his doubles eyes. He had to….

He bent down to where the Doctor had been kneeling. "Have to close her eyes." He struggled to explain although the words seemed to catch in his voice. "So, she could be sleeping. It'll be…" His hand shook as he hovered one trembling hand over her face. He wished he knew the right words, maybe a prayer to say. The Bec he knew was very strong in her faith. Perhaps this one was too. But strangely his mind went blank as he gently closed the dead girl's eyes. He hovered there for several moments only to feel a hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you," the Doctor said quietly, his voice despondent. "And I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that I-"

"Stop it," Mickey interrupted. He couldn't bear the apology, not even from the Doctor. "Whatever I did, it wasn't enough. Not enough to save her. I wasn't in time. I wish…." He looked at the parallel Bec, his grief so palpable in his voice, the Doctor had to close his eyes not to give in once more to his own overwhelming sorrow. Bec was his kin but here was a companion. His human companion who earned his place on the TARDIS in one of the most difficult ways imaginable.

And for a human and as such a friend that Mickey was to his girls, the Doctor was even more overwhelmed by the gratitude for this young man and the constant friendship he had given to both Bec and Cathryn.

"If it's anyone fault, it should be mine. Not yours, Mickey." The Time Lord paused as he squeezed the young man's shoulder. "But I need your help and right now, I know I can count on you."

"Help," Mickey repeated miserably.

"Yes." The Doctor felt terribly defeated. Not only was he dealing with the sheer emptiness of the Bond but there was Mickey's grief too. But too Mickey had every right to grieve. Rose had told him about his Gran dying. That the young man was very much on his own just trying to survive in a very harsh and unforgiving world, much like the universe that seemed to want the Doctor to suffer.

Again, he had to pull himself together, inhaling through his nose. "I need to find Cathryn." He tried to gentle his voice. Incorporate patience for Mickey since now he knew he deserved it. _Patience._ He thought of his long, lost Gallifreyan wife and his girls great grandmother. He acutely longed for her presence especially at this horrible time of trial.

Finally, Mickey stood. "I don't know." He looked around the warehouse. "What if she…." He glanced at the conversion pods. Many people were dead. Only body parts remained. He felt a wave of nausea as he saw a boy no more than fourteen with his arms and feet removed. Part of his torso was cut away. He had bled out when the warehouse had powered down. In those minutes, his death would have been agonizing.

Then there was the sea of various pieces of flesh. A hand here, a leg there. A head ripped from the neck so he could see the spine and he…

He started to heave and then vomit uncontrollably, nearly losing his footing as the Doctor gripped his elbow. He looked at the young man with an equal measure of disgust and compassion before removing his sonic.

"Alright. Just take it easy," he told him, alternating the setting before aiming the sonic at Mickey's heaving diaphragm. The device would help control the spasms he was having and quell a bit of the nausea. "There, that's a bit better, isn't it?"

Mickey was wiping his mouth struggling to keep down the acid that lingered in his throat only surprised when the Doctor's fingers flew to his temple. A light touch and almost immediately, the lingering nausea subsided.

"How did you…?"

"Telepath," the Doctor said. "Light psychic contact through physical touch reduces pain."

"Oh." Mickey was nervous. Did that mean he could read Mickey's mind. "Well, I think I'm better now so…"

"A few more seconds." The Doctor was negating the transmitters that would control the spasms, which was causing the young man to regurgitate. The sick was already starting to smell and it wasn't a pleasant combination with the corpses.

"But…" Mickey insisted.

"Three, two, one." The Time Lord counted before releasing Mickey who stepped back feeling greatly improved. Biting his lip, he looked down at the cracked warehouse floor with a guilty expression. He had been reminded of the many times the Doctor had put Cathryn and Bec to sleep and for a moment….

 _Nah….why would he?_ he reassured himself as he inhaled again, glancing again at the warehouse. This time he was able to control any urge he had to vomit. "So, Cathryn…"

"Yes," the Doctor agreed, but he gave Mickey a strange look. It was that feeling again. That something was off. When he only briefly touched the very surface of the young man's mind, he could sense something. A curtain of sorts for which Mickey didn't want the Doctor to see. It was almost tempting to push that curtain aside. Mickey's defenses as a human were no match for a Time Lord telepathic intrusion but then there had been no love lost between Mickey and himself in the past. Mostly the Doctor's fault for harboring an illusion. And if he intruded on a memory that was private to Mickey, how was that a possible thank you for all that the young man had done? "I need to find her too. What re…" He struggled to breathe. "What remains of her."

The Doctor could smell Cathryn. Faintly but it was enough. He knew she was here although likely met the very same fate as death. He only hoped her demise had been far more merciful.

"There's probably not much left," Mickey said emptily. If a duplicate Cathryn had been caught up in throng, he wouldn't bet on her chances of survival. "Why not just leave it and…."

"No," the Doctor said firmly, and Mickey jumped in response to the ferocity in the Time Lord's tone. He rocked back on his heels and sighed. "I'm sorry Mickey. I was being harsh but you have customs on Earth when someone dies. Bury them in an expensive box in the ground or use cremation. We have a ritual too."

"Which is?"

"Weeell, it's pyre," he stated as Mickey looked at him blankly. "Seen many viking movies?"

"I suppose." The young man frowned. "What does that have to do with…." He paused. "The Vikings used pyres," Mickey realized slowly.

"Time Lords have been using pyres first," the ancient alien said humorlessly. "Vikings may have gotten the idea from us." The Doctor was picking up various pieces of metal as he scanned for any trace of Cathryn. "But when a Time Lord dies, we build a pyre out of wood, light it on fire and watch until the flames burn out."

"Oh….right." This made the young man nervous. The Doctor appeared convinced that Cathryn was inside the facility too and given that scenario, he had to pretend to help search for the other missing girl. He ambled about the room, looking at Cyberpods. Staring at dead corpses or deactivated Cybermen, feeling the still avid disgust overwhelm him while forcing himself to complete the mockery and lie of this task.

The Doctor had meandered past Bec's pod, only a short distance away as the faint scent of Cathryn became stronger. How would he find her? Torn limb from limb? In a Cybersuit? His mind raced at the possibilities. His girls. They were so fragile and he only had them back such a short time. He should have listened better. He should have….

His eyes caught sight of a discarded shoe next to a handbag with other random bits of torn cloth. The scent was now far stronger but how was it associated with clothing items?

The Time Lord picked up the handbag, careful of his injured hand as he sifted through it, pulling out a few photos. It was more assuredly Bec with her arms wrapped around two small children. A little girl and boy. He narrowed his eyes in examination. Didn't Bec say she had two boys? Not a girl and a boy? He looked back through his impressive memory and did recall her mentioning her sons but here she was with a girl. _Her niece?_ But something again didn't set right. A silver charm bracelet was also in the inside pocket. One charm, of a little butterfly, had the word 'Hope' engraved on it. Perplexed, he set the bracelet aside. He couldn't detect the smell in this purse so where was it emanating from?

Then, he looked at the shoe. What was left of it. The section of the toe had been ripped clean off but as he turned it over, there was a dark brown stain on the very sole of the shoe. Carefully he sniffed it. _Cathryn!_ he thought. Or was it? He licked the stain, registering the blood and nodded. Most definitely, Cathryn. But where was her body. This was a faint trickle of her blood. Where was the rest of her?

"What've you got there?" Mickey asked.

"Cathryn's blood on Bec's shoe," the Doctor's voice grated in frustration. "That's it. Finito. If she's here…"

"I'm sorry," the young man told him as the Time Lord dropped the shoe, clenching his fists."Maybe we should go. Give it an hour." He suggested. "Too many bodies in here. Maybe Pete can help with the cleanup?" He paused. "Find Cathryn again?" He spun around, taking a step towards the door already having enough with the sickening smells in the factor.

Only as he walked, he hadn't realized something fell out of his pocket. The Time Lord in his reflexes caught it so it never hit the ground. Mickey didn't hear the clatter so he kept walking.

"Mick-" he started, about to hand back the phone only to stop himself. It wasn't the young man's phone, but it was familiar and he struggled to place where he had seen it before. He was about to follow Mickey out of the warehouse when the cellphone suddenly chimed.

Looking down at it, he was startled. A new message came in and the sender registered as Cathryn. But if Cathryn died here, how was she sending messages? Had her phone been stolen or….

He looked at the message.

 _Thanks for the head's up. Nearing Blackpool. Once he's gone, we'll meet, okay?_

The Doctor's hearts started to pound and as though on automatic, he looked at the phone's complete message history, both outgoing and incoming texts. Some were explicit. Mickey's task was to ensure the Doctor believed both his girls were dead and Mickey had agreed.

And while he was grieving the loss of who he believed to be his great granddaughter, Mickey had sent them a text saying they were 'in the clear.'

His jaw suddenly clenched. He had to be sure. Absolutely sure. So, he made his way back to Bec's body and scanned her inert form as his eyebrows shot up in surprise. She was human! Bec's double in practically every way but fully human. That meant….suddenly his heart started to soar. His girls. If they were texting Mickey, then they were alive. His kin was still alive and he could get them back if he….he pulled out his sonic, doing a scan. The implants weren't active but….he switched to a different setting, his eyes widening when he picked up the faint tell tale signature of Cathryn's sonic, which still was on, reading that it was heading far up north towards Scotland. He hadn't considered to look for the device before feeling the prevailing emptiness in the bond as well as their deactivated implants, which all seemed to confirm his prior despair. That both his girls were lost. But now….well now, this alone seemed to verify this emerging hope. His girls were alive but several hours away if one were driving by vehicle. And just like before, they were trying to run from him. Their act was deliberate and using their very precise visionary abilities, had so insightfully thought this through, anticipating this event. His hand clenched tightly around his own instrument at the notion.

And they almost succeeded in their ruse.

Rage suddenly began choking him. All this time and Mickey had been lying. His pretense at the duplicates Bec's fate and then searching for Cathryn when, the whole time, he had been helping his granddaughters flee his care. Mickey had attempted to steal the one this most prized to this Time Lord, _his family_. Now, his face was lit with fury, his eyes filled with the anger of the Oncoming Storm.

How dare he do that to him! Taking away something so very precious to him, his face became hard as his eyes lit with a distempered vengeance. Time and power rippled off of him as he gave serious consideration into throttling the young human. To steal his own kin was a fate that was repaid with death on Gallifrey.

But he wasn't on Gallifrey anymore and first things first. He would find his family, bring them back home wherever they were and deliver enduring consequences for the fear and agony they put the Doctor through when he thought them dead. How could any child do that to a parent? Had they any inkling of how much he suffered when he thought they had perished?

"Never again," the Doctor said fiercely as he stormed outside, heading directly to Pete, avoiding Mickey completely who was presently talking to Rose. "Mind if I borrow your Zeppelin?" he asked, the chill in his voice could not be missed.

"We have no one to pilot it," Pete replied. Oh, he could but he wouldn't offer. Especially not after what had happened to Jackie. His bitterness with this Doctor still hadn't cooled. "Know how to fly it yourself?" Sarcasm grated in his tone but the Time Lord ignored it, heading to the blimp, only lilting in the early morning breeze. Pete knew it wasn't an easy task and operators of those Zeppelins needed extensive training to-

"I don't need another pilot. I can manage this on my own." The Doctor's voice was curt only to soften as Rose ran up to him.

"Where are you going?" she asked and the Time Lord looked down at his Rose feeling pained that he would have to lie to her this once.

"I've got a lead on Cathryn," he explained, stringing truths together to tell his lie. "Battersea was the first factory to be activated, but Cybermen were sent north to enforce conversions at the other factories. Any Cybermen who were converted here would have been affected by the system broadcast to cancel the emotional inhibitor. It's just a matter of finding her. It shouldn't take long." He couldn't have Mickey, who stood nearby, overhear where he was really going. Mickey could find an alternative to warn his girls away.

"But, how will you know her if she's been…" Rose began to ask, but her voice trailed off.

"They may not have names, but Cybermen have serial numbers, and I have the information I need. Even decommissioned, I can determine the serial number."

Mickey frowned to himself. On one hand, his mind logically pointed out that this was the final break they needed. If the Doctor found Cathryn's converted duplicate there would be no need to keep searching, no risk of him learning the truth. However, he felt the same horrified disgust at himself as he had with Bec's double. This other Cathryn would have suffered too, and yet, here he was, thinking of what was gained from her death.

"You want me to go with you, yeah? I can help with-" Rose started to offer, but the Time Lord cut her off.

"No, Rose. Not this time," he explained. "For now, I need to do this on my own."

Rose clearly looked hurt. "Is this because of the row the two of us had when I snuck into the factory because that was my Mum in there. Or she looked just like her. And I wasn't about to sneak in a kip when you two needed me."

"That isn't what this is about." The Doctor pursed his lips as he came to a decision. "Pete and Mickey need you and, what I'm doing… I need to do it alone, need to find her." He let his face fall, remembering the fear and grief he'd felt, disguising his anger and hiding his true intent. "Shouldn't be gone more than two hours."

"So, that's a promise, yeah? Not going to disappear and leave me stranded, you understand?"

"I won't risk your mum at home slapping me again. Not after last time." He rubbed his cheek at the memory.

"Good." Rose seemed momentarily placated while the Doctor headed from the factory to the small control room of the waiting blimp. He was equal parts elated and furious at his girls. The nightmare they put him through. If he was human, he would have been certain to have been subject to a few heart attacks. They honestly wanted to hurt him so badly that faking their death appeared to be a good plan rather than staying with him. His jaw clenched harder as he used the controls to push the Zeppelin into the air, ignoring the burn on his hand, heading north, in their very direction.

Time to find his girls. Then when he had retrieved them, he would deal with Mickey. So much suddenly made sense. When the Doctor had fed Mickey his plan for the emotional inhibitors, Mickey shouldn't have had time to refine the shutdown code. The influx of emotions would have caused additional energy to be allocated to the central processor, ultimately causing an overload, one that would likely have explosive consequences. Mickey shouldn't have had time to override the power reallocations. The fact that he had done so implied that he had already been advised of the vulnerability of the emotional inhibitors, and his girls had previously demonstrated their precognition.

 _One chance, one warning._ The phrase echoed through his mind. Mickey already had his warning, and had now lost his chance. He would suffer the consequences too for the horrifying enormity that he played in the plan that would have severed the Doctor's direct kin from the now very angry Time Lord.

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 **Authors' note:**

 **As always we would like to thank LovelyAmberLight, Fan Fictional Authoress and Almadynis Rayne for their assistance and inspiration from their stories over time.**

 **Also, as grim as this chapter is, for some elements of the writing and my own life experience, I would like to thank my father who is no longer with me but his presence and heart will endure and persist as my muse. If he were to lend you any advice, he would say to enjoy each day and to most importantly, celebrate.**

 **(emptyvoices)**

 **I'd also like to make a special mention of Christy - Flare whose review inspired the confrontation between Lumic and the Doctor in the generator room. Thank you! :-D**

 **(azaadin)**


	14. Viva Blackpool

**Chapter 14: Viva Blackpool**

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After the planes hit the twin World Trade Center towers on September 11th, the majority of businesses, hospitality industries, restaurants and amusement parks had shut down for one day. The one exception was the airport, which had remained shut down for a good few days as politicians and public examined under good old-fashioned retrospect where their security was lacking.

It had been so long ago. Cathryn's family had been planning a road trip to Disneyland when the events took place. They had hesitated, pondering whether the trip was still a good idea as a family vacation.

In the end, they still went. The park reopened on September 12th in a fervent display of patriotic spirit. Furthermore, with the planes grounded, there were absolutely no lines to get into some of the popular rides. She remembered even at that young age, feeling guilt at taking a morbid pleasure in the fact that Disneyland only received ten percent of it's usual visitors.

Pure nostalgia came so swiftly to her, as Bec drove them into Blackpool in the early morning light, to see it was seaside town with an amusement park that rivaled her Beach Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. Or a bit of the Santa Monica pier in Los Angeles. While their original intention had been to reach Scotland and find passage to Norway or Sweden, with their detour to the other coast Bec was now avidly focused on getting onboard a ferry that would take them across to Ireland, wanting to create as much distance between themselves and London where she knew the Doctor was still located. However, Cathryn's childhood whim now seemed insatiable.

"We can take the ferry out in the afternoon," the brunette insisted, gesturing to the sign, this one made in quick haste, hand drawn to tell those that inquired that boats were suffering serious delays from the prevailing attacks. "And we can get tickets in the fair itself," she added, pointing to the map that displayed vendors where they could book their intended passage. Still a business, they were trying to move things back into some form of order.

As was the amusement park at Blackpool itself. Closed for one day, when the Cybermen invaded, and now back in operation, this time with flags and flowers representing the unified nature of the United Kingdom despite the atrocity, just like Disneyland so many years before.

"But…" Bec shifted from one foot to another, still feeling a little stiff but trying to dispel the puffiness of her feet from sitting still for so long. Cathryn had insisted they kept moving and so they did, agreeing despite her arguing to the contrary, but now she was exhausted. Not only had she been driving all night, but the day had already been long before their flight from Pete's mansion. At the moment, she wanted nothing more than to rest. However, she had preferred to wait until they safely entered Ireland to take a respite, yet, she couldn't think of an adequate response to Cathryn's request. Yes, Mickey said they were in the clear. He had seen Bec's duplicate die. That fact alone made the blonde uneasy. She surely didn't intend to have her counterpart's life traded in exchange for her own, and the thought that this was exactly what had happened was as surreal as it was terrible. She frowned considering her options. "How about we check with Mickey? See what he thinks?"

"He's the one that said…" Cathryn let out a sigh as she relented, knowing Bec wouldn't be appeased without the additional confirmation. She pulled out her phone and her fingers flew over the touch screen keys. _'In Blackpool. Are we okay to visit the amusement park there for a couple hours?'_ She paused before hitting send. Then they both waited until the phone vibrated in response, Cathryn absentmindedly rubbing the still itching scar on her leg where she managed to rudimentarily heal her wound with the sonic screwdriver as they'd driven out of London.

' _Perfectly safe. Stay where you are.'_

"Oh well. You see?" Cathryn held up her phone in victorious demonstration. "In a couple hours, the Doctor and Rose will be heading back. Maybe we don't have to go to Ireland after all."

"I guess," Bec answered guardedly. She didn't admit her ulterior motive. She'd always wished to go to Ireland, it being where her granny's family had hailed from. Her granny had been the first and only member of her family to have been born in Australia, yet she still spoke with the accent she'd inherited from her parents and siblings. Bec had always hoped to travel there herself to try to acquire the accent for herself, rather than trying to speak with a third generation removed version. However, it seemed too petty a reason to use for argument, so, tiredly, she allowed herself to be maneuvered to the fair grounds.

The appearance was vintage. Wooden roller coasters, a Ferris wheel, bumper cars and a host of water rides. Pedestrians were spotty. Considering the popularity of the location, the actual area looked like a verifiable ghost town. For some reason, something beyond the empty walkways and lack of life, something she couldn't put a finger on, Bec shivered, glancing around momentarily. Even though their plan had succeeded, there was a subtlety she could distinguish, something that seemed to blur deeply in the root of her mind, something that made her anxious.

She could see fog in the distance just off the coast as the wind swept through their hair. "A brave new world…" Bec said, looking at the strangers, considering this was the third new dimension they'd visited.

"To have such people in it," Cathryn finished the Shakespeare quote. "Only new to us." She raised her eyebrows. "You liked 'The Tempest'?"

' _The Tempest'_ ,the blonde considered. Honestly, she'd just been repeating a phrase she'd heard so many times before, one of those old adages everyone seemed to know. However, she had seen the play. Her husband had taken her many years before. It was a story about a man and his daughter who were set adrift by their countrymen into the sea only to be caught in a storm and stranded on an island for decades at a time. _There again was that chill._ The approaching storm that isolated them, imprisoned them on the island in the first place. Just the notion of being in such a storm while out at sea… _Drowning..._ Bec took a breath to calm her irrationally racing heart, suddenly less sure of their intended ferry trip. _Drowning…_ She shook her head, trying to shake away the feeling of impending danger that made her want to hide and cry, the fear of the storm. Instead, she pulled her attention back to Cathryn, who had maneouvered her into a short line during her inattention and was currently ordering Bec her first deep fried Twinkie along with her own. Bec frowned, successfully distracted from her apprehension, certain that this choice of breakfast was something they would both come to regret later.

"Wasn't really my favorite," Bec finally answered in an attempt to not be seen as weak, as cowardly, as she felt. "Being caught in a storm…" She swallowed as the irrational trepidation swept through her again, before whispering, "The Oncoming Storm."

"He's not going to touch us again, Bec," Cathryn promised gently. "It's over. Just try…" She pursed her lips before biting her bottom lip. "One moment at a time." She handed her the deeply fattening confection. "Starting with this."

Both girls sat on the bench as the rising sun took the sharp edge off the cool from the night, watching the sea churn into the beach as they bit into the overly rich pastry, sprinkling bits of sugar and white cream everywhere. Bec did manage to laugh as Cathryn dribbled a fair amount of it on top of her red sweater, trying to use a napkin to scrub off the sticky residue.

"Soda water would work better," Bec advised.

"Didn't see that on the menu," the brunette said grumpily.

"Well, you only checked it once." The blonde shrugged. "Unless you're suggesting that the only thing the park sells is fried Twinkies."

"No! Sometimes they go crazy and have deep fat fry Oreo cookies. They're not going to help with my shirt either," Cathryn bit back before struggling to remove her sweater.

"Wait one second," Bec ordered scathingly. "You're not here to do a strip tease or have you forgotten you're not wearing anything under that sweater?"

Cathryn froze in her movements. She had indeed forgotten and her face turned a fierce shade of crimson.

"Come on," Bec directed. She swung her legs off the bench. She'd put them up to try to relieve the tightness of her shoes from the slight fluid retention in her feet, but decided that new, more comfortable footwear was in order. "Those clothes shops in the arcade should be open but now. How about we go find something a little less sticky and catburglar-y to wear." She gestured down her body at her outfit as she spoke, thinking to herself that some jeans and a few extra layers wouldn't go amiss.

"Hey, it did the job," Cathryn defended hotly. "But, by all means, next time you can run around London in an evening gown. I could use a laugh."

And in their bickering, they didn't hear the Zeppelin moving through the air, directly above them.

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All it took was a quick sweep of the city to narrow in on them. With blessed relief to him, the Doctor had recognised the soft, distant flutter of his granddaughters' minds just after passing over the River Ribble. He'd savoured the sensation for a moment, elated by the confirmation through the Bond that his children were alive, wallowing in the peace that their presence, their safety, brought him… then his anger set in.

His grip tightened on the wheel and his eyes blazed as every terrifying possibility ran through his head, not the least being that he still couldn't detect their implants with his sonic when he should have been able to do so from the other side of the planet. The memory of losing Bec still lingered hauntingly before him. _Did they truly have so little regard for others?_ The pain they'd so maliciously inflicted on him... Using the suffering and death of another for their own benefit… And this had been well planned, he now knew. They'd precisely chosen the perfect opportunity to run from him, far too precisely to cry coincidence. His back had been turned for mere minutes and they'd slipped away, leaving him to be distracted by Lumic and the Cybermen while they'd driven across the country.

He shuddered at the thought of them using their abilities in such a way. The damage they could do if they set their minds to it. Had his family truly fallen so low? Had his actions in the war poisoned the future of his descendant? He dreaded the possibility that he might have to take steps to protect the universe… from his own children...

He spun the wheel sharply, aiming for a near park he'd seen which would be able to accommodate the airship, near enough that he wouldn't move out of range of the children who were so delinquently determined to run away from him. He wouldn't allow them to again. He would keep them safe and alive whether they wanted him to or not.

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They'd wandered around for a while, arguing over the various shops around them. Inevitably, Bec begrudgingly followed Cathryn's lead, as she was the keeper of the purse, or, in this case, the sonic screwdriver. Their fighting nearly led her to wander off a couple of times, until they finally found a large store that suited their needs.

"I can't help it if you threw yours way," Cathryn sniffed, sounding far too superior in Bec's opinion.

"That's not how I remember it," the blonde backfired, venting the displaced anger she felt bubbling through her and trying to quell the unsteady nausea that was beginning to bubble with it, no doubt one of those consequences she'd thought of earlier when Cathryn gave her the Twinkie. "Didn't you say you would throw yours at him if you could? If it hadn't been the only one left?"

"But now it _is_ the only one left and…" The brunette picked up a purple tank top with a glittering scene of the beach done in alternating shades of oranges and reds. "What do you think?"

"Nothing quite screams tourist as wearing a shirt that says Blackpool," Bec groused disparagingly.

"Tourist shop. Not many options. At least they have pants," Cathryn muttered, desperate to change and discard her already filthy clothes. It seemed Bec already had that thought in mind. In two dressing rooms, the girls changed into simple black yoga pants and tropical colored t-shirts saying Blackpool in multicolored lettering. However, Cathryn was forced to admit that she didn't have enough cash to pay for their purchases.

"Saw an ATM just inside the store," Bec muttered in sullen rebuke, biting back her scathing accusation of Cathryn's lack of preparedness. She picked at the hem of her pants, tight around her swollen ankles, wishing for a pair of loose jeans instead. If Cathryn had just _listened_ to her and walked the _other_ way down the arcade...

"Yes," the brunette nodded, feeling fuzzy. "The ATM." It would have to do but what setting was it that dispersed cashed? 2C or 5S. She couldn't remember properly. Touching her forehead, she felt perspiration starting to gather. Why was she so hot? Was she nervous? She could feel her heart racing and she tried to calm herself. What had she to be nervous about. They were in the clear now. Soon the Doctor would return to his universe and they could meet with Mickey. She would turn the implants back on until Torchwood could find an alternative to wean themselves off the drug the Doctor had made them dependant on.

Having changed, both girls clipped off the tags to bring them to the register but not before Cathryn visited the store's ATM, this time just staring at it blankly. The store was a small outlet, only one to take cash only. Now what? The setting was….oh, she couldn't remember. Her trembling hand wavered in front of the machine. Was it five….? Five something. She couldn't be sure. Maybe she should point and think. Return to old habits. Cathryn closed her eyes and then shook her head. "I don't think I can…" Her voice trailed as she looked at Bec. "Maybe, just this once...we turn on the implants until we….until we see Torchwood or…."

"We can't," Bec reminded her. "We have to be sure the Doctor's gone. Twenty-four hours isn't up, and Mickey will tell us when it's safe, and…" The blonde breathed in deeply, thinking of how one mistake, just one could lead to their ruin. Being imprisoned back on the TARDIS. Having injections forced on her against her will. Being compelled to sleep. To do much of what the Doctor said and the sensation would only worsen. No. She would have to hold out from her withdraws a bit longer. She had been on medication before, and she never liked it then either, hated having to take drugs to feel normal… _How much worse can it be?_ Perhaps that was a silly question, she reconsidered, since Cathryn had voiced the fear that, potentially, their withdrawal could in turn cause fatal consequences.

"Let me try," Bec demanded suddenly having watched the brunette fiddle uselessly with the silver tool. Her tone was brusque and she snatched for the device.

"No, I'm the one that's been practicing," the brunette declared, tightening her grip and trying to pull the sonic back under her control. "When we need the psychic paper…."

"Practice at what?" Bec chastened her. "Meditating in front of an ATM?"

"I think...I think I know it now. You see, I just-" Her fingers slipped on the button as they tousled over the device. Suddenly the ATM let out a piercing alarm and suddenly started just spewing cash in haphazard directions.

"And whose fault is this?" Bec accused quickly as Cathryn's face darkened. Fortune was not on their side when another voice came from behind them.

" _Oi!_ You two! Stop right there. Stealing from-"

"I'm sorry. I…" Cathryn started.

"Hands where I can see them. Police are on their way. Neither of you move an inch."

"It was a mistake!" Bec protested. "Something magnetic in our purses or…" She looked at the sonic instrument knowing the device was too blame.

"We'll wait for-"

They didn't hear the rest. Panic set in. Neither would be able to properly explain what they had been doing so they dashed out the door finding themselves each immersed in a crowd. Music was playing loudly on the walkway near the beach and as tightly as Cathryn tried to grip Bec's hand, a throng of people jarred up around them casting each girl aside. Cathryn momentarily got pushed and swept along briefly with the crowd before she stumbled to the side.

Righting herself to her feet, she panicked when she saw that Bec was nowhere to be found.

"Bec?" she cried out.

Nothing. Cathryn's breathing became harsher and in that moment, struggling to catch the mere glimpse of her friend, she picked up a familiar scent. Why was it familiar? It reminded her of something. Honeycomb, nutmeg and cardamon. Very scant but still drifting on the breeze. Was it from a concession stand?

 _Where is she?_ The brunette pressed her lips together. Quickly, she sent Mickey a text.

' _Separated from Bec. Please tell me if you hear from her.'_

Almost fifteen minutes later, she received one.

' _She's waiting for you near the ferris wheel. On the bench.'_

Cathryn frowned. That was at the opposite end of the park. Why would Bec think to go there? The phone vibrated again.

' _Are you coming?'_

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Just as the throng of revelers pushed through them, Bec was yanked backwards, and she lost her already slippery grip on Cathryn's hand.

" _Got you!_ " a voice said, pulling her further from her friend.

" _No!_ " she shouted, trying to shake her attacker off, convinced it was the Doctor kidnapping her again despite that she knew they were safe - Mickey had told them so, and the voice had sounded nothing like the Time Lord. She glanced back to see the security guard from the store, the man who had shouted at them when they set off the alarm on the ATM. " _Let me go!_ " She struggled, trying to pull her arm from his grip.

" _Over here!_ " he called out behind him, ignoring her words. He needn't have worried about making himself heard, though, because the crowd was already beginning to part around them and the two police officers he was attempting to summon were already making their way to the source of the commotion. He was merely trying to restrain the thief, he would leave it to the police to do more, but suddenly the woman lashed out at him, shocking him with the ferocity of her attack.

Bec spun on the spot, stepping closer and bringing her knee up into the man's middle, hard enough that he instantly let her go, but she could feel some inescapable and imminent danger looming before her. Her heart raced chaotically and she gasped heavily like she couldn't catch her breath, but her body surged with adrenaline and her mind was clouded with terrifying, although disassociated, rage. The only thought she could grasp hold of was the need to fight herself free. Danger screamed around her like waves on a beach, feeling closer every time they crashed around her, so she fought back against the enemy she could see, directing that wrong and frightening anger she felt at her assailant, tackling the already doubled over guard to the ground. " _I'm not going back!_ "

Heavy shadows closed in around her, crushing her, and she fought against the grasping hands that sought to restrain her. Her mind flashed back to the table she'd been restrained to by the clockwork robots, feeling just as trapped and terrified as she had then. It felt like years ago, when she was sure it had only been a few days, but once more she felt the bite of metal, this time around her wrists instead of into her forearms, and she struggled and screamed and begged for her freedom even as she was pressed painfully into the cold pavement. Her mind went to the Doctor, as it had on that ship - He was the hero. Wasn't he supposed to save them? - until she remembered that he was the one she was trying to escape from.

The unnerving anger receded slightly and a calm momentarily swept through her, allowing her to briefly hear and recognise her surroundings properly again. It was a policeman on her back, holding her down, explaining to her that she was to be taken to the police station and placed under arrest for such charges as theft, assault, and resisting arrest.

"No, no, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" she begged fearfully. She glanced around her, her eyes finally falling on the guard she'd attacked, who was currently swearing profusely about her as someone inspected his head. _How did that happen?_ she wondered, before the memory of the sickening crunch when she'd tackled him floated through her mind. That wasn't like her… She… She wouldn't… "No, _please!_ " she begged, as the officer lifted his knee off her back and maneuvered her into a sitting position now she was no longer fighting, her hands secured uncomfortably behind her back.

She looked up at him, confused as to just how she found herself in this situation. The frown he gave her led her to suspect that he was likely doubting her sanity. She too was wondering if that was the correct response as her eyes sought amongst the crowd for the danger she felt. She whimpered back fearfully at the disembodied anger that continued to press in suffocatingly around her. In a moment of clarity, she realised that the rage that flowed through her wasn't directed at her attacker, or even the officer who had held her down and cuffed her, it was directed at herself. Her eyes were fixed unseeingly at a point behind the crowds, somewhere beyond the mass of bodies that blocked her view, staring at the apparent source of her anger as though she was trying to distance herself from the emotion, deny it as her own. She didn't even know what she was looking for until she saw the too familiar sandshoes and the ankles of those pinstriped trousers stalking ever closer through the throng.

" _No, please no!_ " she begged in a breathless whisper, trying unsuccessfully to back away, pushing against the sidewalk with her feet and a combination of sliding and walking with her backside to move further away. Nothing had touched her, yet she felt like the wind had been knocked from her chest. Her heart beat so hard and high in her throat, she felt like she was going to throw up, while everything around her grew muffled and indistinct as terror coursed through her. The world was nothing but a chaotic haze of colour… until _he_ stepped cleanly into view, the sole point of terrifying clarity against the haze, his eyes locked unerringly on hers. _No. No. He found me. No. He found me. Please. No. He found me._

' _No, help me, please!_ ' she tried to scream, trying to get the attention of the police officers, of the crowd, of anyone who would listen to her, but not a sound passed her lips as her throat had seized closed out of her fear. She shook her head minutely in denial, and it took but an instant for that subtle shake to overtake her whole body leaving her shivering on the cold pavement.

The Doctor had sensed his granddaughters ahead and he'd moved decisively towards them. When they'd separated, it was Bec he'd continued toward, determining that she was the more imperiled of the two based on the emotions he could feel roiling from her. The intensity of her fear stabbed through him, tearing to mind the danger that she might be in. ' _I'm coming_ ,' he'd whispered, sending her that calming reassurance, his anger temporarily redirected at whoever would do his children harm, but a moment later he'd felt her rejection of him and his fury had flooded back.

It didn't take long for him to press through the crowd and catch sight of her, utter relief and righteous anger at war within him. Her terror was not only palpable through the Bond, it was also written across her face and in her every movement, and that fear was entirely directed at him. His own children had feared facing him on occasion, just as he too had feared facing his own father and his grandfather when he had acted wrongly. That wasn't the fear that poured from Bec. She feared him as an enemy.

He ripped his gaze from her tear stained face to assess the situation she'd found herself in, quickly formulating a plan to rescue her.

"I'm sorry, sir. This is a crime scene. You can't come any closer," one of the officers declared, stepping in front of him.

The Doctor sized the man up before calmly reaching into his left pocket and withdrawing a small leather wallet. Bec still had his psychic paper, but it was going to take more than that to get her out of this mess, so the contents of the wallet didn't matter. "I think you will find that the woman in your custody is under my jurisdiction. You will cede her to me immediately," he commanded, firmly holding the man's gaze to maintain hypnotic contact as he extended the leather wallet.

The officer frowned slightly as the command took hold, and he reached out to accept the leather wallet. As soon as his fingers closed upon it, however, the Doctor's free hand shot up, closing over the man's hand and telepathically reinforcing the command.

Satisfied, the officer turned to his partner who was still talking softly to the oblivious Bec whose horrified eyes were still fixed on her head of house. "Rich, he's here to take her in," he explained with a jerk of his head toward the Doctor.

The kneeling policeman locked his shrewd gaze on the Doctor. "I'm sorry, but that's not procedure," he corrected firmly, his tone brokering no argument.

"Of course," the Doctor agreed amicably, before extending the wallet once more. "These are my credentials," he offered.

"I don't care what your papers say. We're not going to-" His voice cut out when the Time Lord caught hold of his hand as he reached for the papers he had every intention of disregarding.

"You will release her into my custody immediately," he instilled.

"Of course," the second officer agreed, wondering why there was even a question that he wouldn't do so.

Task complete, the Doctor turned his attention back to Bec, who cowered motionlessly before him. He stepped closer before crouching in the same place the policeman had knelt moments before. "Come with me, Bec," he ordered, his voice soft but unyielding. "Don't make this any harder that it has to be."

He pulled out his screwdriver as he spoke, then he quickly scanned her, assessing his granddaughter's condition and trying to determine why her implant was giving no signal. His hearts stopped when he read the results, his panic so intense that he saw her wince in response. The implant wasn't damaged or broken, it was offline. Cathryn's screwdriver was locked from certain functions, it wouldn't have been able to disable the medically necessary device, and it had shielding from EM and other forms of energy that might disrupt it. In fact, the only tool, other than his own sonic, that had the capacity to power down the implant was back in the medbay where he'd left it after showing Rose and… _Mickey!_

The air around the ancient Time Lord rippled with power as he understood. He hadn't been able to detect his grandchildren from mere minutes after they'd run from him. They must have shut the implants down as soon as possible using the device _Mickey the Idiot_ had given them. Did the foolish boy even consider the consequences? He who claimed to be his granddaughters' friend and ally?

Unlike the injections, the dosage from the implant was only low, enough to balance their needs at any given moment, rather than providing a massive dose that would slowly peter out. Their bodies would have burned through that tiny supply quickly after shutting the implants off. Not only that, but with the hours they had gone without the proper hormones and nutrients, combined with the strain of the irregular flow of time in this parallel universe, not to mention the intense physical stress to them of both the Cyber attack and their attempted escape - there was nothing left, and the sheer toll it put on their bodies…

Mood swings and cognitive irregularities would have been their first and most benign symptoms. Whenever he recognised those signs, he'd provide another injection to stabilise them. Without it, the physical symptoms would begin to manifest; increase heart rate, hypoxaemia, fluid retention, jaundice, nausea, compromised immunity, autoimmune responses - the list went on; symptoms of the onset of multiple organ failure, and too many were being displays with the results of his scan. His children were dying!

Not sparing another instant, the Doctor took hold of his granddaughter's arm, forcing her to turn away from him as he pulled her arm closer, ignoring her fearful cry of surprise as he pressed his sonic against her skin over the implant, reactivating it and causing a large dose of biodata to flood and correct her system. There was no finesse to the dosage he administered, he just hoped that he'd reached her in time and that further intervention would not be required, but his thoughts immediately went to Cathryn who was likely in just as dire a predicament as Bec. He reached out to his absent grandchild. He knew she wouldn't come back to him, so he poured out the compulsion for her to return to Bec in the hopes of drawing her out.

" _No_ ," Bec tried to deny, realising he was turning the implant back on. An instant of foreign but pure fear had chilled her to the core just before he'd acted, as though she already subconsciously knew what he was about to do, but she couldn't stop him, couldn't prevent him from reactivating that electronic chain that was slowly poisoning her, turning her into… something else, something not human…

As soon as he released her from his grip, she pulled away from him again, twisting around as she tried to look at her arm, turning it and rubbing the spot where she knew the implant to be against her side and back as though trying to scratch it out with the soft, smooth fabric. " _No, no, no, no_ ," she obliviously murmured at high speed, even though she knew she couldn't stop it in that manner. She glanced down and around herself, realising that the device to turn the implant off again, along with the psychic paper, was still in her jacket pocket... which she'd left in the changing room when she'd donned more comfortable clothing.

"No, please, no, please. I don't want it," she begged, even as she was unable to even look at the man whose very presence dominated her awareness. " _Please!_ " her voice whispered.

"It's not up for discussion," he declared firmly, his own hearts still hammering at how close it had been. "It's time to go, Bec. You're coming with me."

"No, no, I'm not," she murmured, shaking her head. Her children flashed through her mind, running towards her with their arms outstretched. ' _Cuggle_ ,' she could almost hear Micah asking, the innocently imploring tone he only used when he was supposed to be in bed for the night. Pete's world and the dimension cannon was their only hope to get home, the only way to get back to her children. In her mind's eye, her children were replaced with the cruel prison that awaited her with the Doctor, a life of cruelty and torture, and she mentally cringed away from it, desperately trying to bring back the image of her children. "No, no, I'm not going back. I'm not. I'm not going back," she softly denied, barely even aware of her repetitious rambling. "I'm not going back."

The Doctor would have prefered to give her more time to recover, to wait for her to be in more sound mind as the hormones permeated her system and took effect, but he knew she was just as likely to resist and fight back against him once her mind cleared, perhaps even more so considering how obviously determined she was to leave him. Also, Cathryn was still out there and just as in need of immediate medical attention, if Bec's condition was anything to go off. There was no time. However, he could hardly drag Bec around with him, considering how forcefully she would struggle against him - He'd caught a hint of how she'd fought back against the security guard who had tried to restrain her in the second officer's mind - nor did he want to make a scene. No, he needed Bec's immediate and unconditional obedience without him being physically tethered to her to allow him the freedom he needed to regain Cathryn.

"Then you leave me no choice," he declared with finality, lifting both hands to her temples.

"No, _no!_ " she cried out, looking up at his resolute eyes at last. The image of Donna begging the Doctor for her life flashed through her, closely followed by Lilly about to have her mind hollowed out by Nine after he misunderstood her actions on Platform one. _Final Action_ , she thought. _He's going to kill me!_

" _No. No. Please no. I won't- Please! I promise-_ "

But the isolation she'd always known was compromised once more, a heavy, dark cloud closing around her, making her feel claustrophobic within her own mind. She felt something akin to a tug deep in her own mind, far from the reach of the cloud around her, and yet it twitched again, like a fishing line pulling on a point of the ocean floor where the hook had become caught. Suddenly the darkness spun and spiraled down around the invisible line, binding tightly around it like a parasitic vine choking down the branch of a tree, before anchoring itself in place with the cord and pulling taut once more, becoming smooth and streamlined like a thick, tightly weaved rope.

" _What do you think you're doing?_ " somebody shouted at him in response to Bec's scream of fear and pain, and the Doctor was forcibly pulled from his granddaughter.

"It's okay. She's mentally ill," he placatingly lied to the policeman, both to explain her cry as well as her earlier behaviour. "It looks frightening, but it's just a technique to calm and help her, isn't it Bec?"

But despite being physically separated from him, Bec could still feel the dark rope anchored deep in her mind, that darkness slowly spreading, feeling it's way through her mind like a thousand tiny, slimy fingers reaching out searchingly. She tried to resist them, tried to push them back like she might brush some creeping, slimy thing off her arm, but the expanding darkness was impossible for her to resist. She might push back against one creeping finger of thought only for another to come from another direction. One by one the fingers closed around their targets, distancing Bec more and more from the world around her. The utter violation she felt… Something that was just for her - her mind, her thoughts, her innermost being - was being violently invaded and usurped from her control. It wasn't even as though her control was being entirely shunted to one side. It was more like when she took Micah by the hand and forced him to close his hand around a toy and put it in the toybox - the utter domination over her control, and she tried to scream in terrified anguish and despair.

"Yes," she heard herself calmly say after a short pause. She continued to silently scream at the invasive darkness, desperately trying to tear herself away from him and flee in the other direction, even as she looked up to meet the Doctor's eye. "Thank you for that," her voice said gratefully.

"See? No harm done," the Doctor said with a cheery grin, before carefully helping Bec to her feet. "Now, if you don't mind," the Doctor began as he sonicked the handcuffs around Bec's wrists, dropping them to the ground, "I need to take her to her next doctor's appointment, but I'll bring her by the station first thing."

"Wait, you can't do that," the security guard Bec had fought argued. "She attacked me. She's supposed to be arrested."

The Doctor caught the second policeman's eye, the one who seemed to have a little more authority and sway, and spoke firmly, instilling a hypnotic suggestion. "He's not telling you how to do your job, is he?" he asked.

During the ensuing row, the Doctor turned and led Bec in the opposite direction through the crowd, slowing gaining tighter and tighter control over her motor function. He carefully held his own shields in place. He had no idea how much she potentially knew of the future, of _his_ future, but it was too dangerous to risk. He had to keep his own defences secure so he wouldn't by mistake hear any thought that wasn't safe. As such, he also couldn't hear her crying out against him, as he was certain she must be, although he could feel the slight flutter as her mind battered against him, could feel those parts and processes he'd so carefully taken hold of struggling slightly in his mental grasp. Even for him the feeling was disconcerting and draining, feeling like he had two bodies walking side by side, the concentration it took to cause both bodies to walk and move naturally, and if it was such an off putting sensation for him, for her it must have felt-

He couldn't think about it. The Bond was there to strengthen relationships between family members, parents and their children, a naturally occurring tie within a telepathic, time travelling race, nature's way of keeping family units together, ensuring the continuation of subsequent generations. Natural selection, as it were, for the continuation of the Gallifreyan people. His current use of the Bond was a perversion, but a necessary evil for the wellbeing of the children he needed to protect. Telepathically anchoring himself to the Bond in such a way allowed him to maintain telepathic contact and command without even the need for physical touch, but it was in opposition to everything the Family Bond meant.

"That won't work," he told Bec softly. She was shouting his name at him in her head, trying to use it to free herself, but all she was risking was breaking through his defences and exposing him to any foreknowledge she might be privy to. "I'm the head of your house. My name only serves to make the Bond stronger," he explained firmly. His words had the desired effect of causing her to cease that form of resistance.

He'd led her far from the commotion she'd caused, and was now turning his mind to acquiring Cathryn once more. He pulled Bec's phone from his pocket, considering messaging her under the guise of Mickey Smith, only to find a message waiting for him. He glanced around them, formulating a plan as he took in their surroundings. After a moment, he began to reply to Cathryn's message, simultaneously causing Bec to cross the open plaza, aiming for the wooden bench by the telephone booth, a nicely distinct location to be able to draw Cathryn to.

He allowed a couple moments to pass after the initial text message was sent, giving his granddaughter Bec's location, before sending another. Time for this instance was not in his favor. Besides from what he knew about Mickey, his relentless, pestering, while so infuriating to him, was likely seen as an affectionate human trait by his granddaughters. So, his hurried messages would then appear just as commonplace as he urged his second granddaughter towards his location.

' _Are you coming?_ ' he posed as he lay in wait.

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' _Are you coming?'_

Cathryn paused, fingers shaking over her device. Why did she have a really bad feeling about this? But this was her friend. Still, in that moment, she remembered how Amber had bad intuitions regarding situations. She had often been the one to recommend that she give her instincts more of an examination rather than pushing them to the side.

 _And haven't I done so before?_ It had happened once already back in her reality when a company pressed to her to take a job offer. She was overcome by a bad feeling associated with the consequences of doing just that. She couldn't determine the reason or logical source for the trouble but was filled with trepidation to the point she couldn't dismiss it.

She turned down the job offer stating her priority to completely focus on her education to maintain professionalism. Two days later, her father had the seizure and was in the hospital. Then she knew. If she started to work, she would have to resign, which would be a struggle. She wouldn't have had those precious last few weeks to spend with her father because she would be mitigating affairs at the office and with school and it would have been even more of a nightmare.

She swallowed overwhelmed by that similar hesitation. That something was about to go terribly wrong.

 _But it's Bec_ ,Cathryn reasoned, closing her eyes. _We need each other especially if we're going to get home._

She sniffed the air. That smell, the familiar smell that was so difficult to place. It was coming closer in every passing moment. The phone beeped again. She stared at the device as her head started to pound. She was missing something. What was she missing? Something to do with the phone. The gyrating sound of the text message alert became a constant white noise adding to the clutter in her already dizzied mind.

' _Cathryn, are you coming?'_

She swallowed, feeling sweat trickle down her neck. ' _Yes, I'll be there_ ,' she replied to Mickey's text. No matter what her instinct told her, she wouldn't abandon Bec. Not again. ' _I'm on my way.'_

Cathryn started to make her way there, her gait a bit off balance as she attempted to navigate through the area, feeling a vague but subtle pull. The encouraging tug at the back of her mind as though a hand on her shoulder that validated her direction. The sensation seemed to grow in a small measure but it wasn't until the ferris wheel had just come into view that she hesitated, grasping the wooden beam that separated the amusement park rides from the sandy beach below.

She felt her heart pound loudly in her ears. _It was….it was…._

Cathryn inhaled through her nose. What was she doing? Mickey just told her that Bec was waiting for her and….

 _How is Mickey talking to Bec?_ Cathryn stared at the mobile in her hand. _She doesn't have a phone...at least not a-_

Her phone was beeping again. Another message from Mickey. She struggled to put the pieces together in her befuddled mind. But she couldn't...her thoughts came to slowly. It was like swimming through a vat of caramel. She felt inebriated. Worse than that. She felt completely….

' _Cathryn, you need to go see Bec.'_

"Go see Bec," Cathryn repeated aloud. "Right. I'll... I'll just ask her then." She let out a breath. "When I see her."

She started to walk again in that direction wondering why she felt that this was wrong.

 _Just find Bec._ She told herself. _Just find her and then it will all…._

Her vision became nearly blurry when she was within several feet of the other woman who was sitting relatively prone on a bench near a familiar, red British phone booth. _Was that how Mickey….?_ She shook her head at the errant thought as she approached the blond.

"Bec?" she asked the girl in question who simply glanced up at Cathryn. "Are you…" She tried to find the words. "Okay?"

The brunette wavered in her position just a few feet away from the blond, one looking at the other with uncertainty.

"I'm okay," Bec said but her voice was nearly even. Barely a change in affect at Cathryn's presence. She still appeared rooted to her position.

"We can't stay here," Cathryn insisted, her skin prickling as the bad feeling that she was trying to ignore became a persistent echo within her mind as she looked down at Bec who was... unmoving. Staring at Cathryn, her expression fixed in near silent expectation. She was waiting for something. What was she waiting for? "Bec we have to go. Mickey said…." She glanced down at her phone deciding whether to send Mickey another message. She felt a chill run down her spine. Someone was watching. Maybe multiple someones. She felt like a steady pair of eyes were on her. Watching her movements.

She turned abruptly, fervently hoping not to catch a glimpse of the Doctor.

Nothing. Masses of people. Teenagers. People standing in line for the vintage ferris wheel just behind them. She exhaled as she started to turn back to Bec. A flicker of movement. Just out of the corner of her eye. She looked to the source. Nothing there.

She pressed one hand to her forehead, feeling dizzy at this sudden spin in movement. The air was suffocating. Nerves cramping her stomach. She could not tolerate this much longer. She took another step forward taking hold of Bec's hand to pull the girl to her feet. Once they left this amusement park-

Cathryn let out a gasp when her forward movement came to a halt as Bec's fingers interlocked with her own in a tight, immovable grasp. She pulled the brunette towards the bench trying to drag her into a seating position right next to her. Pain radiated up her arm. The other girl's grip was dead fast on her hand.

"Bec, what are you doing?" she tried but Bec's eyes weren't on Cathryn's. Merely a position behind her. "Bec!" the brunette exclaimed.

No use. _The withdraws?_ Cathryn no longer had the activation switch and she couldn't turn on the implants with her sonic. Even if she was able, the settings to manipulate them weren't programmed into the device.

And then, the problem remained in her ability to use it. She could hardly think straight at the moment.

So, she did the next best thing, hoping to jar Bec out of her stupor. She used the imbalance of the weight against them that was knocking off her center of gravity and pulled back, allowing herself to fall on the ground in a sitting position. Like a see-saw. She noticed Bec's surprised as she was pulled off the bench stumbling on her feet, almost to fall but using the phone booth to anchor herself as Cathryn regained her footing. Now that both of them were standing…

"We need to go," Cathryn said to her, pulling insistently. Even with her strength, she only managed to maneuver Bec a couple feet. The blond resisted her, trying to take her original seating position.

"You know we can't leave, Cathryn." In Bec's mind, she still railed against the cage she was forced into, feeling the Doctor's words come to her lips instead of her own. "It's not safe for us on our own." The girl paused. "You're sick. The Doctor will-"

"The Doctor-" Cathryn cut off, giving another look, only to stumble at seeing him just ten feet behind her. How had he gotten so close so fast? How was he manipulating Bec without even touching her?

His expression was grim and relentless. Now having come upon the last member of his family, he looked at Cathryn wondering which girl had so little compunction, they risked the life of everyone on this planet so they would torment him by running away. Even to the extent that they used Bec's very duplicate, seeing her life as expendable and using it to further that same aim. _And they say I'm cruel._ He pursed his lips, looking in the eyes of his frantic granddaughter. The symptoms were there and he could feel her confusion, her disorientation...she needed intervention now.

"Try to remain calm." He poured in soothing sensations he didn't feel through the Bond but nevertheless with Cathryn's delicate position, she needed all the help he could get. "You'll feel better if-"

"Stay away…..just…..just stay away. Won't let you experiment on us. We don't want…" She stumbled back away from him against the railing for which he took advantage. With Bec locking onto Cathryn's hand with her fingers, his movements were lightening fast, seizing her other arm, pressing her back against the railing bar. She cried out in pain as she felt the wind being knocked out of her. Blood was rushing in her ears as cold metal was placed in the crook of her elbow.

"It's okay, Cathryn. You're okay," he assured her, his voice calm and bordering on cold. "Just give it a moment to take effect."

And suddenly, in a rush that was equally dizzying where she nearly felt compelled to be sick, she fell to the ground, clutching her stomach while the Doctor ran a scan. He'd had to give her a far heavier dose. Nausea was not unexpected but….

"Hot…" Cathryn mumbled. "It's so hot. So, very hot. I'm burning. I can't…"

The old alien frowned. In that singular dose, her temperature had skyrocketed to 39.4 degrees celsius. She had a fever. A slight command conveyed to Bec told her to released her grip as Cathryn went to the nearest water fountain and began to drink water. He had Rebecca follow closely, ready to restrain the affected girl if she tried to use the opportunity to flee. A few minutes later, she seemed unable to stop drinking. He scanned her again. The dose was too heavy. The precious equilibrium of her body was off by several micro-spans. She was depleting her water and the precious few energy stores she had. Removing a syringe he kept for just such an emergency, he carefully adjusted the extract along with biogenic material to counteract some of the medication he had given her.

Taking hold of her one free hand, Cathryn yelped. She pulled away, causing her arm to stretch out as he held her, and he had Bec take her by the forearm to secure her movements. "No, I don't want anymore. I'm burning. It hurts and-"

The needle pierced her skin. A vein prominent in her wrist. "Just give it a few seconds." He counted down in his mind but wondered what happen to cause his granddaughter such an adverse reaction. He closed his eyes. But her emotions were still in turmoil to give him a ready explanation. He sighed, shaking his head. Nothing could be determined until he got them back on the TARDIS. Once the injection was complete, he continued checking her vitals until he saw a result. Her fever was starting to decline.

He swallowed his relief, relinquishing his hold, offering her the one chance he offered Bec. A certain heaviness lay on both his hearts. Given the insight he had on Cathryn, he doubted she would accept his offer, but, still, he would make it regardless. The hold he had on Bec, because there was no other choice, but it would be callous to say at any moment that he enjoyed it.

"Come with me, Cathryn," he offered. "This shouldn't have to get unpleasant. No need for a scene is there? Would be far easier on you if you just came quietly."

Cathryn looked at him for the first time, her face no longer a mask of confusion. She was looking at her jailor. Their jailor. They'd tried to run, and it had almost worked, but still he'd found them. After all they risked, the chances they took, he still found them. _But Bec_...She looked at her friend, standing there placidly even as her grip remained anchored to Cathryn's arm. _What has he done to her?_ Horrific scenarios ripped through her mind. The Doctor erasing Bec's memory, the Final Action Amber mentioned in her story or countless other times when the Doctor had been adversarial about using his telepathy. Her body still felt like it was still burning even after the injection. _What did he give me?_ she worried. She still struggled against Bec's grasp on her hand. If she wasn't still in part restrained, by some reckless impulse she was tempted to run into the ocean surf. To cool her already sweat ridden body down.

But she still wasn't about to roll over and play possum. She couldn't. So she fixed the Doctor with her best glare. "You want me to go quietly?" She noticed her words didn't shake this time. "And I so want you to go to hell!" Her voice became louder. Other passer-byers stopped, hearing the argument. "We're not going back with you. We won't and you-"

His fingers were on her temple, his thumbs locked around her jaw. "No!" she protested. "No, no, no, no, no! He's going to kill me! He's-"

But her words were drowned out at the Doctor invaded her mind, drowning out her voice was a pervasive darkness spread everywhere, cloaking her mind in the foggy shadows. Those same shadows greedily pinned her to the back of her mind and like black oily residue, formed a cage made up of a mental sludge. A slime that she couldn't find. Couldn't dig out the dirt. She was in a small, dark room, covered in smoke. It blinded her. She couldn't see much less find the doorway from her mental prison.

The Doctor nodded in satisfaction as he latched onto the Bond in Cathryn's mind and while assuming her fine and gross motor control. He had to admit Cathryn's voice was loud. She managed to push a good portion of the Doctor's presence partially back. Inadequate in Time Lord terms but impressive for one just using telepathy for the first time. Still, he wouldn't take chances. There was more than enough of his presence to keep a firm grip of the Bond, tethering Cathryn to himself.

The new noise of both his children battering against the bond was distressing. This perversion of the Bond was not without consequence since it wasn't meant to last for long. Several hours at most. He already felt the mental fatigue of the toll it was taking on him to keep it intact but it was necessary. _Enough time to get them home_ ,he thought. But hearing their helpless cries caused him pity. Much pity. They were just children.

But then, these children risked so much and could have been found by the Cybermen. Even if they weren't converted, information could have been extracted from their minds. They, by way of running, had put so many lives at risk, including Rose. _Especially_ Rose. The thought of her having to watch Jackie Tyler die in a Cyberman suit only to watch the duplicate Bec suffer the same fate….his pity was tempered by their actions. They hadn't cared about the deaths at the Cyberman facility. Even with their visionary abilities, they'd chosen not to warn him. The pity dissolved into the brooding form of a parent. Once they got back to the ship, he would consider whether or not to completely relinquish them from his control given the obvious risk they posed to themselves and others. For now…

"You two will follow me into the Zeppelin," he said to them. "It's about time we should be getting home."

"Yes, it will be good to get home…" Cathryn repeated, seeing they had drawn a crowd of onlookers. The Doctor saw it too, turning back to the brunette with a nod. "Bec and I will finally be safe." The words were foreign. She was only a silent passenger watching the Doctor speak for her, speak for Bec. Her words, spoken for her by the Doctor, seemed to appease the crowd.

"Nothing to see here." His voice had that mesmeric quality. "My family just had a bit of panic and ran from the attack. Got lost. Right Cathryn?"

"Yes, we didn't know who to trust," the brunette heard herself say. "We were scared." She stood up, brushing off her clothes. "I'm sorry we ran. We weren't sure what else to do."

It was then, she felt her body move against her volition. Through the dispersing crowds. They had already lost their interest. Bec was moving too. Side by side, they stepped in unison as the Zeppelin loomed up right in front of them. She wanted to speak to Bec, to console her but she lost that permission. At this moment, neither one of their bodies appeared to be their own.

 _He can do this?_ Cathryn thought in horror. _At any time?_

Alone that prospect was a horrible thought to consider. They still had to get away. But when was….

 _Doomsday._ Cathryn thought. Their one hope could only be to somehow endure until Doomsday. But events of that episode seemed so distant….How could they even make it while still retaining a sense of sanity if this is what the Doctor could do? Would they even survive?

They moved away from where they had caused the latest scene, disappearing into anonymity, then the Doctor turned to face his grandchildren. He gritted his teeth and set his anger and disquiet to one side, focusing on practicalities. He would deal consequences for their behaviour once they'd returned safely to the TARDIS. Every moment in this universe added to their overall danger. They had all survived the Cybermen, and his girls had survived their attempt to run away, but they still didn't belong in this reality. The sooner they were all home, the better. However, there were some matters he couldn't leave unattended.

"Where are the psychic paper and the bio-electric stimulation kit, the device you stole to turn off the implants?" he asked, his voice steady. While he could simply lift the memory from their minds, the danger was still too great that he would see more than was safe too considering their acute precognition. (It was imperative that he learn as much as possible about their abilities once they returned home. Their actions made his lack of knowledge on their gift abundantly clear.) Nor could he simply force them to speak with the control he had over their fine and gross motor, as they would only speak the words he deliberately put in their mouths. So, instead, he released their voices to their temporary control, ready to usurp it once more if they tried to used them inappropriately, and poured the compulsion outward into their minds to answer him fully and honestly.

"At the shop," Bec whispered, devastated.

"What shop?" he demanded, focusing in on his blonde grandchild.

"The shop where we went for clothes, where we got in trouble."

"Take us there," her Head of House commanded, the telepathic sanction that came with his words forcing her to comply. He loosened his grip upon her motor functions, not removing his touch, but allowing her movement beneath it, allowing her to command her own body as she obeyed his command, leading them toward the arcade.

He held out his hand before Cathryn whom he walked beside him. "Sonic and phone," he demanded likewise releasing her arms to herself, his voice low, calm, and cold.

Cathryn resistantly acquiesced, placing the two objects in his outstretched palm, unable to prevent herself from giving up those two small pieces of freedom, from giving their hated captor all the precious memories from home that her phone contained.

The Doctor tucked the two devices safely in his pocket. He thought briefly on the punishment sometimes employed by human parenting in this era, restricting the use and accessibility of technology from their children. That wasn't his motivation in this instance. His grandchildren simply couldn't be trusted. Although, he did consider that a more human consequence would serve better for these two wayward children, punishments they understood, rather than those that used to be employed on Gallifrey after such a breach. He would have to consider that issue more deeply, he decided, mentally setting it aside for another time as another matter drew his attention.

He withdrew his hand from his pocket, looking down at Bec's phone which was vibrating rhythmically, announcing an incoming call. His children winced and his eyes blazed at what the screen was displaying to him, and he very deliberately answered the call.

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Mickey was frantic as he retraced his footsteps once more. He couldn't find the phone Bec and Cathryn had given him anywhere. While he had their numbers saved in his own phone, having backed them up for emergency, he didn't want to risk contacting them lest his phone give him away. All he had in his favour was that the Doctor wasn't around to witness him anxiously scouring the factory for the missing phone.

"Rose," he finally asked hesitantly at the completion of another circuit. "There was this phone. Small, black, all screen, but no numbers. Have you seen it?"

Rose looked at him with puffy eyes as she sat in her vigil beside Bec's body. With the Doctor away on his search for Cathryn, she'd taken it upon herself to sit with his family until he returned. "Phone?" she repeated. She didn't recall having seen anything matching his description, but then she was finding it hard to think, hard to recall little details from the last day. _'M just tired_ , she told herself, rubbing her wet yet gritty eyes with the heels of her hands.

"Nevermind," Mickey murmured, stepping away once more. Not only did Rose look too tired and grief stricken to help him, but he felt sickened with guilt whenever he looked upon the broken duplicate of his friend, feeling like he was significantly responsible for her death, and guilty that he couldn't ease Rose's heartache with the truth.

He pulled his own phone out as he began his fruitless circuit of the factory once more, deciding that it was a risk he needed to take. He dialed Bec's number, holding perfectly still as he listened for the vibration of the phone upon a hard surface. He slowly shuffled forward, his ears prickled intently, but he heard nothing. He glanced back down at the phone in his hand, intending to hang up and try again a little further along his route, but his heart hiccuped in surprise to see the seconds steadily counting, and they had been for a while. Someone had answered.

"Hello?" he asked into the phone, even as he wondered how someone could have found the device. No one had come into the factory since the freed people fled and the Cybermen were destroyed, he would have seen them if they had. But realisation filled him at the the cold voice and words that answered the young man, his heart stopping entirely and his blood turning to ice in his veins.

" _For your own sake, you'd better not be there when_ we _get back_."

There was an audible click as the call was disconnected, but it took Mickey a long time to bring his hand down from his ear, his eyes falling to the phone in his hand in horror. He'd failed them. He'd failed his friends. The Doctor had them once more, and it was his fault, his mistake that cost them their freedom. A thrill of cold fear ran through him on their behalf as he remembered all he had seen them endure over the last week. Since their arrival, the Doctor had seemed a different man, more _dangerous_.

The chilling fear shivered through him again as those words the Doctor had spoken on the phone, the cold promise in his voice, echoed through his mind. Mickey swallowed heavily, knowing instinctively that this wasn't going to be a slap on the wrist and send him packing. He'd pay for his failure with his life.

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 **Authors' note:**

 **We think this chapter aptly named out of respect for David Tennant's other work about the location of the same name. Also, this chapter does bring about the contemplation of the after events of a catastrophic incident where lives have suddenly been lost. So in remembrance of those and any of us who has lost anyone, we see Blackpool or a variation of it as a form of 'escape'.**

 **Thank you everyone for your support of our writing and all the inspiration you have given us to continue to do so. This work has been a solace for the both of us.**

 **And, once more, thank you to our friends who have been with us to support us throughout this time: LovelyAmberLight, Fan Fictional Authoress and Almaydnis Rayne.**

 **azaadin & emptyvoices**


	15. Bitter Consequences

**Chapter 15: Bitter Consequences**

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Bec sat in the corner with her knees drawn up to her chest. She could have sat on one of the executive lounge chairs, or stood by the window and watched the land passing far below, but hiding in a huddle was the only position that felt comfortable in her devastated despondency.

The Doctor had marched them like marionettes into the airship, holding the door open for them in a parody of chivalry as he caused them to enter the executive suite. "You do not leave this room," he'd told them, his voice unyielding, then he'd shut them in to attend to the task of flying them back to London.

The oily, black fingers that had anchored into their minds released their hold and slowly began receding back to the point where the black rope was anchored into place. Even that cord diminished, until only a thick string of darkness remained, binding them to the Time Lord who would not be denied. Now the two couldn't help but feel the Bond he'd created; a leash, a chain, a wrongness that didn't belong, didn't feel natural; but they didn't know how to sever it.

After control of their own selves was returned to them, the two girls had broken down, first separately as they tried to come to terms with all that had happened, and then together as they offered each other what poor and wordless comfort they could. Neither of them tried the door, never even suggested it, even though they were both certain that he'd left it unlocked. After all, where could they go that wasn't on the zeppelin, that wasn't out of his reach? And, besides, he probably had any cameras the ship might have had focused on them, keeping his prisoners under his surveillance. They had no intention of testing him again in any case, too afraid of tempting that oily darkness that had left them feeling so completely defiled.

He'd held them entirely under his control, and now that he'd released them from his influence, Bec could feel just how powerless she'd been. It was terrifying enough, the terrible _other_ that she'd felt in her mind where only she was supposed to be, the sensation of having her body move against her will, but what disquieted her the most, if it were possible to rate the trespasses against each other, was when she'd lead them back to the souvenir shop. She'd fought the darkness, resisted the controlling, but then had willingly obeyed his command as though she was perfectly content to submit to his arrogated authority. The thought that he could appropriate so much control that she couldn't even consider resisting, that she hadn't even been entirely aware that her very will had been usurped until after it had been returned to her… and the idea that he could do it again at any time…

She could still distinguish him there… She'd tried, years ago, just for fun, tried to find the shape of her mind, the outskirts of her thoughts. While she could 'think' forward to a point that she seemed to stop, that she thought of as her forehead, in general her mind felt formless and endless. That was no longer the case. She had simply been sitting in the middle of a dark room, flailing her arms out blindly for the walls around her. Now the lights had been turned on and she could see herself better… and she could see what didn't belong.

That whisper of emotions at the back of her mind… She had been ignoring them for days because they felt somehow out of place. Now she understood. Now she could see their source, and they weren't coming from her. Her thoughts returned to that disembodied anger that she'd felt that morning. She'd thought it was her own, but it had felt so _wrong_ … That anger merely simmered distantly now, replaced by a sense of calm, a sense of… rapport… a slight pull of inclination in favour of the Doctor. She could recognise it now, and denied it with her very being. It was a _lie_!

The muted anger felt more honest, disproving the peace he was trying to make her feel. That anger was so terrifying when focused on her, but his emotion that had poured through her when Mickey had rung… She could only describe it as _murderous_ … She'd tried to scream out in warning, and she could have sworn she heard Cathryn doing the same, but neither of them had made a sound.

She shivered, retreating further into herself, even as she remained fully aware of the room they were imprisoned in. However, hiding within herself no longer provided her with the sanctuary it used to. Her very thoughts felt somehow marred, and every minute movement, every seemingly insignificant muscular twitch, was accompanied with a mental heaviness that felt entirely foreign to her, like muscles that were strained and tired from lifting heavy weights.

His frustration had again poisoned her when they reached the shop. Despite his efforts, they'd lost the psychic paper entrusted to them as well as the device with a complicated name he'd used to create that electronic leash had been long gone, taken as evidence of their crime. His expression had been impassive, but his anger burnt at them. _He didn't need it anymore_ , Bec thought bitterly, not with this telepathic leash he'd now instilled. She hugged herself tightly, unable to tell if the shivering that racked her body came from herself or the airship they were confined to.

Cathryn felt the ship lifting them off the ground, taking them back to the TARDIS and she merely sat there blankly looking out the window. They had been so close and risked so much. Their lives, their sanity and all they wanted was to just go home. But the dream was dwindling. Seeing her father again or her family was so quickly being stolen from her.

 _He hates us this much to…._ A sob caught in her throat. She could feel the Time Lord ever so slightly tense in her mind. The cold anger and disappointment were evident behind the even calm. And what was that? Despair? The emotion flickered away before she could catch it. She wasn't even sure if it was the Doctor or her emotion. Maybe Bec?

Bec hadn't looked up, her arms wrapped around her legs in a desperate attempt to keep herself from weeping. It was a small movement only in which Cathryn was able to touch her arm. That much was permitted from their jailor outside.

"He'll hear us," she whispered.

"I know. It doesn't matter." She drew a shaky breath. "God still controls this right? He hasn't…" It hurt the brunette to even consider such disconcerting questions about her faith. But after she had seen what the Doctor can do, was there anything he wasn't capable of? _No._ She tried to tell herself. Whatever he was, the Doctor wasn't a god. He certainly wasn't God. God would never will for such a thing but…..she felt herself tremble. Where was her faith when she really needed it?

And what would he do to them once he had them both on the TARDIS? Brief thoughts of Lilly. Sara. The Final Action. A Time Lock. Imprisonment in their rooms for days, weeks or months.

She couldn't do that. She didn't know how she would survive. How could they survive?

"Yes, God's in control," Bec offered this meager hope for her friend because the worst thing she could do is give up her faith right now, yet the words that had comforted her through so much now held a hollowness that they never had before. She remembered Reinette's conversation that she had with her and how deeply it touched her heart. That poor woman had their letters and words as the only solace preceding her death to remind her of the very essence of Cathryn's question. Who was really in control? Bec glanced at the unlocked door, feeling her fists clench protectively. The dark fingers still present just at the edges of her mind as an ever present reminder. Who indeed?

"God's in control," Cathryn repeated. "But who controls him?" Her hand gestured back to the Doctor. "And who tells him when he has gone too far? When will he finally listen?"

xxxxxxxxxx

Mickey saw them approaching and forced himself to stand tall. He wasn't going to run from him. No, not the Doctor no matter how much the Time Lord wanted him to. Oh, he had been scared at first. Properly scared. But if he gave up now, then he would be seen as the coward and idiot he was aptly called in the past.

He would not let the Doctor have this satisfaction. But the Doctor's look was stormy and relentless as he presented Mickey with a darkened stare before marching his girls to the TARDIS and ordering them inside. He released the control of their bodies to themselves, but compelled the order to force them to obey without question. To remain in the console room without touching the equipment until he had returned, knowing he had one task to dispense himself with.

And with no hesitation, he ventured outside to issue his verdict on the man whom had tried to do him such an injury. It caused his anger to boil just beneath the undercurrent of his unyielding exterior and he clenched his jaw.

He turned to look at the human who approached him with a look of determination and disdain. Once the Doctor might think these admirable traits but after what this little man had done, it was all the Time Lord could do to keep from snapping his neck right here and now. No. Too violent. And Rose. She was coming. He couldn't kill him, now while she looked on. But he clenched his fists in absolute fury as Mickey approached, holding his head high. Appearing rigid.

"I'm ready to go," Mickey told him determinedly. It meant leaving the Gran he just found behind and, with her own Mickey gone, she would now be truly alone. But he made sure to fix that one piece of frayed carpet before he left. It was that small token of good that he could do there that might offer solace to her when he departed. He'd also leave all the new friends he had made, but it was the price he'd pay for where he failed to help Cathryn and Bec when they'd needed them to. He would never make that mistake again, and he would not abandon them now, especially when they needed him.

And how painful it was to see them being marched with blank expressions on their faces back into the TARDIS, just like prisoners on a firm mechanical leash. There was indeed one present but one he simply couldn't see. No one else seemed to notice the Doctor yielding this force, but Mickey did. They seemed unable to resist not even looking in his direction, their heads hanging slightly, as if in contrition, to justify their lack of acknowledgement as they marched willingly onto the ship that Mickey knew they had fought so hard to leave behind. This wasn't them. This was _him_. There was no way he would leave the girls to the Time Lord's questionable mercy. He would stick with them now more than ever.

The Doctor's expression was one of disgust. Because of Mickey, he had lost the bio electric stimulation device for the implants and also his psychic paper, which were likely in the hands of humans with questionable skills at such advanced Time Lord technology. Because Mickey lied, he nearly lost his own grandchildren. And now, this man believed he had the audacity to think he would step onboard his ship.

"Maybe you should just stay here," the Time Lord's voice carried a warning.

"Maybe I should," Mickey answered back. "Better food. Better tech. Better company." He glared at the alien. "But I won't abandon Bec and Cathryn. I won't-"

"You won't be seeing them again," the Doctor pronounced his verdict. "You see, Time Lord laws have limited authority in other universes. Step on my ship and you are back in _my_ domain. I'm free to execute punishment in accordance with Time Lord statutes. Your choice Mickey Smith, exile or justice, which is far more mercy than you deserve." Time rippled around the alien as he held back his rage. This human, this insignificant little man had almost taken everything from him. He'd almost robbed the Doctor of what was most important, family.

"You will never see, talk to, or visit my granddaughters again. There will be no contact. Never again. _Never._ "

" ' _Mercy_ '!?" Mickey countered incredulously, about to begin a debate.

"You can thank your friendship with Rose for that," the Doctor cut him off.

"If you think you can stop me from-"

The Doctor stepped forward with all the power of an Oncoming Storm. Mickey froze. He stopped talking. He could feel the danger emanating from what looked like a man in front of him. He could almost sense the suffocating power around him. And he felt like he was teetering on a knife's edge, about to be snuffed out like a tiny flame on a candle in a tornado. It was at that moment the human realized just how alien the Doctor was. It was in that moment Mickey Smith finally understood the Doctor wasn't human. And it was in that moment Mickey Smith knew true fear.

All the courage he'd pulled together to face the clockwork robots, all the self control he'd used to fight the cybermen, and all the bravado he'd put on to defend Bec and Cathryn blew away like straw in the wind. Mickey swallowed.

"Try me," warned the Doctor. He leaned in closer to Mickey's ear. "Please. Try me." Then the Time Lord stepped back, permitting entrance. "Go ahead. Step on my ship. See what happens."

Mickey couldn't help himself. He took a step back. He wanted to help Bec and Cathryn. He wanted to be there for them. But he just couldn't. He couldn't bring himself any closer to the TARDIS. It was all he could do not to run away. His breath felt stale. He would need to find another approach to help them, no matter how long it took but fighting a Time Lord… he knew he was certain to lose. At that moment, he might even be lucky he was still alive.

The Doctor looked over Mickey's shoulder at Rose and her would be father heading in their direction. Rose was leaning wearily on Pete who was helping her. The Doctor clenched his jaw. She had lost her mother, grieved over her friend, and fought against herself when she'd almost been converted. Rose had suffered so much that she shouldn't of had to suffer if Mickey told him the truth from the start.

"Say your goodbyes, Mickey." The Time Lord had about all he could take of this dimension. He headed back into his ship, and started her up. He knew Mickey was staying behind, and Rose would be along any minute. He could tend to her injuries better as soon as they were back in the prime universe.

The Doctor glanced up from the console at his granddaughters standing next to the jump seat. He could feel their emotions. And he knew they could feel his.

"Wait for me in the Library," he ordered.

xxxxxxxxxx

For whatever they expected, it wasn't this and now, both girls truly felt terror. The Doctor forced them to walk into into the Library, empty save one image. A holographic form of Bec in a Cybermen conversion chamber. Metal jammed in various places, she was struggling to speak as tears came down her eyes.

Both girls looked on in horror. Their terror started to increase three fold. Was this his punishment he had planned for them? Was that why he was showing a holographic image of Bec? To show just what he intended to mete out on them? Cathryn was short of breath while Bec felt dizzy. She wanted to plead with him. Tell him 'no'. Any words of protestation would suffice but they were stuck in her throat. The two didn't know how long they stood, staring at the other Bec gasping harshly for breath, before the Doctor came in, simply suddenly aware of his presence with them.

The Doctor was still, frowning at the idea of losing his remaining descendants. It's hadn't struck him until he was forced to watch the parallel version of Bec die. For a moment, he believed that to be his grandchild he was losing. He thought they were both….the alien closed his eyes. He would have been undone. It would have destroyed him. There would have been nothing left of his tattered hearts, nothing. Maybe this conversation should wait. Maybe he was too emotional to be dealing with his kin right now. Maybe it would be better to cool off first, but there were things that needed to be said sooner rather than later.

The ancient Time Lord looked at each girl. "I've just been looking after Rose," he told them. "You see she just watched Jackie Tyler, her mum, die after being turned into one of those monsters. She had to watch while they cut humans open, and listen to them scream while they died. Including you." He stared at Bec grimly. "We thought we had both seen you die. You have any idea…" His voice shook, remembering how he thought he had lost her. "This was how we thought we lost you, _Rebecca_. The life you two cast aside as unnecessary." Using her full name made his tone even more grim.

"And then there's Rose. She's having a bit of a hard time with that right now. So you can go to your rooms or sit in here, and think about what could have happened because of your choices today. You think about what becoming a Cyberman would have felt like. You think about how that would have affected the rest of us. And you think about how you would feel if you knew your actions today had destroyed someone you know, someone like Rose." He clenched his jaw. "Take your time," he added as he started to head towards the door. "Because you won't be allowed out of the TARDIS any time soon."

Their fear was mounting as Cathryn felt a wave of darkness sear her vision. Her clothes damp with sweat, she was soaked to the skin. And now she was staring at what appeared to be their fate. But the Doctor had done some truly terrifying things. Her mind drifted to the 'Family of Blood'. Then she thought of her own past. If he was going to mutilate them this way….

The Doctor turned back to them with a sensation of concern. He could feel their absolute fear mounting. They were in a state of panic. Did they both require more medication? Quickly, he pulled out his sonic and scanned them.

No, it wasn't an imbalance. Their hormones for the moment were stable. The implant was still functioning adeptly and seeing to that. But they were legitimately terrified. Filled with rising fear and stress at what they were seeing before them. But so far they were stable. He would simply just keep an eye on it and if they became slightly elevated... He clenched his jaw and rocked back on his heels while continuing the program, holographically displaying his memories, until the Doctor was forced to euthanize Bec's human duplicate despite how much it broke his hearts to do so.

Despite their terror, the girls needed to see this. To know what happened to this woman whose life they used in trade for their own escape. This Bec deserved that much after what she had suffered, deserved so much more that he could never give.

"Her name was Rebecca," he said slowly. "I looked her up, needed to know, the life _you_ sacrificed. She deserved at least that honour. She was a wife and mother. She died today leaving behind her children, so you could run off."

"It wasn't… that wasn't our fault," Bec defended weakly, almost as breathless as her holographic counterpart, as Cathryn put a shaky hand on her arm.

"What are you? Ten?" asked the furious Time Lord, pacing before them in his frustration. " _Not your fault?_ Do I have to give you a time-out and have you write lines to help you understand what you've done _?!_ " The Doctor stopped his pacing, and began listing things he could have them write. "I will not run off and scare the artron out of my great grandfather," he said while pretending to write in the air. "I will not needlessly risk my life during a Cybermen attack," he went on. The Doctor turned back to face his granddaughters, still angrier than ever. "Do you have any idea what cyber conversion involves?! Well, just look. See what they would have done to you?!" The Doctor ran both hands back and forth agitatedly through his hair. "I could have lost you!" he raised his voice. "Of all the thick headed, selfish, uncaring, cruel..."

The Time Lord stopped talking, letting one hand rest on his forehead. He took in a shuddered breath. He knew the girls were young. By Time Lord standards they were practically babes. But he'd figured their human biology would have accounted for at least a little more maturity. "You put your lives at risk. You risked my life. You risked every life on that planet because I could of been off trying to save you instead of helping them. You let this very woman _die_ so you could run away. And you risked Rose."

Bec took in a slow breath. Cathryn clenched her jaw. And the Doctor felt his girl's relief through the bond. They realized the looping hologram of Bec unsuccessfully gasping for breath wasn't what the Doctor was planning for them.

 _Relief?_ he thought. _How can they feel relief!_

"Wait." Cathryn's voice caused him to suddenly pause. It was calm, disturbingly even as she suddenly turned to face him. Bec glanced up at her in alarm. The trouble they were in seemed insurmountable. What was her friend doing now? "Wait," she repeated.

"We didn't create the Cybermen," Cathryn objected. "And we didn't kill her to get away from you." She shifted her stance, still feeling uneasy talking to their abductor. "So why are you showing us this? Hundreds of people died on that planet."

"Thousands," Bec's weak voice corrected to herself absentmindedly, as she tried not to imagine herself in the place of the identical woman before them.

"Right." Cathryn nodded. "You're right. It was thousands." She looked back at the Doctor. "Do you intend to show us every one of them?" Cathryn held her voice steady, but both Bec and the Doctor could feel her heart pounding through their family link.

The Doctor pursed his lips. "Did you know about the Cybermen before we arrived in the parallel universe?" he asked.

Cathryn hesitated.

"Did you know about her?" The Doctor waved in the hologram's direction.

"No," the girls answered in unison.

Bec stared at the image of herself, feeling the horror of what she was seeing, and trying to push it away, while Cathryn stared the Doctor in the eyes, relieved she'd been able to answer honestly. If he had waited for her to answer his first question, she would have been forced to lie. No half truth would have worked. But the Doctor hadn't waited before asking his second question, his clarifying question, giving Cathryn an escape.

Bec's arms were tightly hugging her chest, feeling like she'd break apart it she didn't physically hold herself together, pain flooding her as she imagined the woman's children crying, their mummy never coming home. It was worse than their own situation, as she still hoped… But this Bec- her children could have been Bec's own, her two little boys… _I wish… we could have saved her. I never wanted her to die or… her children..._ Bec's jumbled thought and despair came through the link, and Cathryn reached out to take her hand.

 _Me too_ , thought Cathryn to herself. _I wish we could have saved her too._ If only they'd known about the duplicate in advance. Maybe they could have done something. Maybe they could have saved her.

But the Doctor froze. For his grand daughter to be able to send a thought as clear as a four century old Gallifreyan, she would have had to... The Doctor spun around, adjusted his TARDIS controls in a panel on the room, and began to turn off the hologram. He suddenly realized seeing an image of herself like that was overwhelming her. And, like any overwhelmed child of Gallifrey, her telepathic cry for help could be heard by any Time Lord within proximity.

But for Bec, as gruesome as it was she couldn't tear her eyes away from the empty place where the hologram had stood, from the memory of her suffering duplicate, from her despair for her children. The image of the other woman's broken body remained fixed before her long after after it flickered and vanished from sight. She felt like she couldn't breathe, like she couldn't get enough air, even though her lungs successfully ballooned as she silently drank in the air without relief… She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. Her throat was gripped in panic and dark splotches danced in front of her eyes, but the Doctor's attention was drawn by Cathryn before he noticed, filled with consternation at the question his granddaughter asked.

"You know, Bec, I'd still like to answer his question," Cathryn said in the same flat tone. Bec looked towards her with a slightly hollow gaze, as though she couldn't quite seen anything beyond the image in her mind's eye, while the Doctor turned, raising his eyebrows at Cathryn in surprise.

"The question being?" His voice was guarded. Stern, appraising his granddaughter but Cathryn's face was nearly like stone as she stood there. Her expression foreboding.

"Are we ten?" Cathryn repeated his first words quietly. In their proximity, she could feel his mind and some of his feelings brushing up against her own. The connection hadn't fully solidified but it would be enough for what she intended based on impulse really. "Just forced us to watch a Cyber Conversion. You think that would be the worst possible fate wouldn't it? Even after what you've done to us." She gave him a knowing look. "But yes, what am I, ten?" She breathed deeply. " _Grandfather_ , want to see what happened to me when I was ten?" And summoning all those memories to the surface of six months of violent, sexual abuse she shoved them through her link so he could experience it all. Bit by bit. Every moment. Every time, she trembled in fear at night. Hid in closets. A double entendre as her refuge and her terror. Was dragged into her room. Forced down on a bed. One night after a horrifying other. She was ten years old and then, she couldn't help but wish she were dead. That perhaps what the Doctor had shown her on video, a human being ripped apart while painful, was momentary compared to the hours each night she had suffered as a child unable to fight back against her own brother.

He had slumped against the wall in the onslaught only to just finally recover. She wasn't sure he could likely stand to look at her again. How could anyone look at her after seeing what she showed him?

She simply blinked. "So, to answer your question, I was ten and no one saved me. No one came." Her voice shook but only momentarily. "I learned quickly. By necessity at ten years old. There's worse things than death. Worse things than Cybermen. Worse things than you probably. Not by much. You _violated_ us. You….you invaded our minds because you… you showed us that…" Gesturing to where the holographic image had been displayed. She could hardly speak. When she was a child, she had occasionally been subject to corporal punishment. Been slapped from time to time. This form of parental invasion reeked of that very same consequence in its most hideous form. _How could any parent do this to a child?_ Even if her parents were capable, she was convinced they would never consider doing what the Doctor just did as an option. The invasion, the control and the taking away of her liberty was wretched.

Once, when she was small, she had been so very frightened of the dark. She had been locked in a closet for nearly an hour when her brother was given charge over her. When her parents came home, she tried to tell them what he had done but they didn't believe her until… until they caught him. Sometimes she had been sent to her room for the rest of the night but lived in fear of the shadows. The closet, which was her sometime refuge was also a paradox. It contained some of her larger fears and now she could no longer hide from anyone. The shadows would find her wherever she went.

"Maybe you're right. I am only ten." Her voice a whisper. "That's when I lost my childhood. Pieces of my soul. And now we just lost that again because of you! And don't you dare tell me you know what that feels like because you have no freaking clue. If you did, if you had the slightest hint, you would never have done what you had just did to us in the first place!"

She was back in the dark, locked in a closet. A rhetorical one, instituted by the Doctor and that closet could confine her, enclose her at any moment. And, oh, now she hated the dark more than ever.

He was still shuddering at the impact of the memories Cathryn sent him but at this point, she could only feel her heart turn to ice. "And it wasn't the only time Doctor. Not in the least. Fifteen years later, I was attacked again."

 _Not the first time…._ The Doctor struggled to think. In that moment, the fingers of his control on their mind released their grip, the thread of thought he'd anchored to each of them around the Bond spiraling back to him. The Doctor could no longer hold it. How could he use the Bond in such a distortion after the images he had just seen? _Violation. Attack._ His children felt defiled by what he did. But he'd had no choice! He'd _had_ to save them! He needed… He inhaled through his nose and took one staggering step back. A wrongness echoed back at him regarding his earlier decision. He felt his own shock. The old Time Lord, looking at his kin, now felt sick. The alien swallowed, closing his eyes as he sorted through the complexities, the gravities or repercussions of what it had taken to save his children. _Was there really any other choice?_ he asked himself grimly.

"I'm going to my room, Bec." Cathryn addressed her friend. She felt his control relinquish itself and she knew the other girl needed her support too. But she couldn't stand to be in the Doctor's presence anymore. Still, they needed each other. "If you want to talk or come inside, just knock."

And with that, Cathryn exited into the hallway while the Doctor clenched his jaw, looking at nothing before glancing at the corridor Cathryn retreated to. He heard her fading footsteps echo down the hallway.

Bec was left surrounded by the deafening ringing of silence which echoed throughout the room after her friend left. She too had been flooded with Cathryn's memories as Cathryn had poured them indiscriminately into the Bond. Still so incredibly new to telepathy as she was, her mind had accepted the memories the only way it knew, by integrating them as her own. Now she had those hollow memories of abuse, though she hadn't lived them. All the days of Cathryn's suffering… her heart poured out mournfully in comfort and kindred despair to the other girl.

Those implanted memories served to make her own abuser so much more terrifying, and she couldn't not be aware of his intimidating physical presence mere metres away. Now she was alone with him. She had never seen the Doctor so angry. She'd never seen him so frightening. Bec had been terrified of him before, but this… this was encroaching on new ground and she felt her heart racing heavily, clutching the spot on her arm where the implant was hidden as she hugged herself. No advocates anymore. No Mickey on the ship who knew what the Doctor was really doing. He was gone and she was… Her hands shook. She wondered the same question she asked herself before. If he was like this now, how would he be when Rose was really gone? Her mind fluttered to 'Doomsday'. How many days or weeks away would the events of that episode occur? Would either one of them survive that long? Or would they die or be broken to his will? She shook her head minutely, wishing away the possibility of his genetic experimentation and just how dire it would be if either Cathryn or she drew the short straw. How would he be when he was the Time Lord Victorious? And how could they possibly get away if they couldn't even leave the TARDIS?

Bec brought a hand up to wipe her eyes on her sleeve, filled with a mixture of despair: her imprisonment, the fate of her duplicate, the Doctor's proximity. She struggled to breathe but the air brought no relief. She couldn't stop seeing the other Bec die over and over again, gasping wetly for breath, on a looping cycle. How could anyone show that to her? How could he….Bec closed her eyes, swaying slightly and leaning against the wall. She frowned, took a deep breath, pushing the moisture in her eyes away, and fainted.

"Whoa!" The Doctor, who had been lost in his own dismayed and flummoxed thoughts, jumped forward, barely catching her before she hit the grating. He felt frazzled as he lifted his granddaughter up, his mind running endlessly over every detail as he tried to understand his children and their unpredictable and contradictory reactions. After quickly assessing her and determining that nothing was wrong, he carefully carried her back to her room, placing her on the comforter. Clenching his jaw, he raised his chin while covering her with a blanket.

 _What had just happened?_ They were his grandchildren and the consequences he attempted to mete out backfired catastrophically. _Human, not Time Lord._ What does that mean? He drew a ragged breath before storming out into the hallway. He needed time. Time to think.

xxxxxxxxxx

"As if I had another choice! The Bond was the only way," the Doctor declared with solemnity. "What they did, it doesn't make needlessly risking her life acceptable," he muttered to himself as he continued to storm down the hall.

The TARDIS wisely adjusted the hallways, keeping the alien away from everyone. It had been a long time since she'd seen this much of the Oncoming Storm.

"It doesn't make risking any of our lives acceptable," he fumed.

The memory of the telepathic images and emotions Cathryn had sent him flashed over his mind again. Normally, he would have been ecstatic, proud of her for taking her first telepathic step so young. She'd just done the equivalent of running into a somersault and landing on her feet without learning how to walk or even crawl first. But what she had shown him had hit him hard. The Doctor stopped, closed his eyes, and cringed. He clenched his jaw and hands, squeezing his fists with enough pressure to break stone.

If he hadn't been trapped in this dimension, kept away from his family, he'd be sorely tempted to break the laws of time and undo the unspeakable atrocities forced on his great granddaughter. He wanted to beat her attacker within an inch of his life. He wanted to rip through his body as much as he wanted to rip through his mind, trapping him in a single moment of time, so his suffering would never dim, never fade. But he couldn't.

The Doctor paused. "I'm starting to think like a human," he voiced. "Violent. This new regeneration is violent." The alien took a deep breath through his nose, put his hands in his pockets, and leaned back on the wall behind him as he forced himself under control. "I'll have to watch that. Be extra careful."

What made matters worse was the Doctor knew it was his own great grandson who'd committed those crimes. It was his own kin he'd thought about ripping apart a moment ago.

"What could have happened to him to make him like that?" The Time Lord frowned and tried to swallow the lump in his throat. What about all his other descendants? How many of them were suffering like Cathryn and her brother? How many were having to endure the atrocities of humans? Memories of the horrors the Doctor had seen committed by human hands throughout history came to mind. How many of his children were being destroyed, manipulated or taught to participate in evil?

The alien hit the back of his head onto the wall behind him, remembering how Cathryn had wished for death in her memory. Perhaps he'd made a mistake when he'd sent his children away. Perhaps it would have been better if Cathryn and Bec and all the others had never been born.

Never been born. The thought let feelings of emptiness settle in the Doctor's gut, and tears gathered in his eyes.

"No." The Doctor pushed himself off the wall, and began moving quickly through the corridor. _No_ , he thought. _I won't apologize for them being born._

No matter what hardships they had to endure, they were his family. And if there was one thing he knew about his family, it was that the House of Lungburrow would overcome the darkness. Yes, his great grandson had made mistakes worthy of execution. But the Doctor was sure, given the right counsel, the child could overcome whatever had led him down that path. Perhaps the boy had been assaulted as well. The alien suddenly hated humans. He hated their violence, their crime, their shortsightedness, and their propensity to harm their own kind.

The Doctor stepped into the console room, instantly noticing the absence of Mickey Smith, and the odor of salt water tears.

"How are they?" asked Rose.

"Human," came the Doctor's answer.

"Human?" repeated Rose. "And 's that a bad thing?"

The Doctor sighed, running a hand down his face. "Maybe," he answered. He began moving around the console, adjusting dials and switches.

"Did you know Cathryn was an abused child?" he asked, flipping a lever. The time rotor began to move. "She used it as an excuse for running off. Nearly getting herself killed."

Rose moved to stand near the console, and let her hand hover over the bilateral stabilizer.

"Halfway down," ordered the Doctor. He pointed to another switch, about to tell Rose to flip it. But she did it on her own. He hadn't had to say a word. Part of the Doctor calmed. Rose was here. She was alive. And she instinctively knew what he wanted.

Rose adjusted another dial, settling the turbulence. "Why would she tell you tha'?" she asked. "'S kind of personal, isn't it?"

"I think she was trying to tell me showing her a recording of a cyber conversion wouldn't affect her because she'd already suffered more than being cyberdised."

"That's horrible." Her bottom lip quivered as she thought of her mum. She thought of the screams in that room, and the moment she realized that Cyberman speaking to her had once been her mother. Rose reached across the console, and flipped two switches.

The Doctor adjusted the helmic regulator. And the two of them carried on in silence until Rose's voice broke it.

"Do you..." She choked back her emotions, and the Doctor looked up. "Do you think being a Cyberman is worse than dying?" she asked. "'Cause I do." She thought about her mother again. She thought about Jackie Tyler trapped in that metal endoskeleton. "I think any human would rather die than..." She felt the Doctor take her hand. She pulled in a staggered breath. "Oh, Doctor. She was my mum. My mum."

He flipped a lever with his freehand, slowing the TARDIS to a stop, and pulled Rose toward him with the other. He caught her shoulders, and bent down to look into her eyes.

"Rose, I swear. She was not your mother. Jackie Tyler is fine. She's just fine. She's back in London just like we left her. That woman in the other dimension wasn't your mum."

Rose looked back into the Doctor's eyes. "Does it make a difference?" she asked. "She would have rather died."

"Oh, Rose." The Doctor pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her. But his thoughts were not on Jackie Tyler. They were on Cathryn and Bec.

Rose had said being a Cyberman was a worse fate than death to a human. Bec had been overwhelmed by the image he had seen, but, in retaliation, Cathryn had telepathically shown him that she thought what she'd suffered was a worse fate than being cyberdised. He'd felt how Cathryn was using what she'd suffered as some kind of excuse for risking her life, like what she'd suffered would have made her risk acceptable. The wheels in the Time Lord's head began to turn. Connections and thoughts began pulling themselves together.

Finally, one horrific idea formed in that massive brain of his. Finally, he felt like he was beginning to understand. He glanced down at the blond silently crying into his shoulder, and realized without her he may have never reached the conclusion he'd come to. Rose had done it again. She'd seen what he couldn't. She'd opened his eyes. The alien held his companion a little closer, feeling her pain, and sensing her grief.

 _Cathryn wanted to die,_ thought the alien. Weeell, maybe not now. But she wanted to die before. Now it's residual. She doesn't want to die, but she doesn't feel like her life was worth living. She felt like she was broken, tainted, ruined. _She feels like she isn't worth as much as another human_ , thought the Doctor. _She feels like it wouldn't matter as much if she was hurt... or even killed as it would if another unbroken person was hurt or killed._ The Doctor cringed at his comment about having the girls imagine how they would feel if their actions had gotten someone like Rose killed. How he had forced them to see the holographic image of the parallel Bec's body. He recalled both their reactions. _Oh, that was the wrong thing to do to them_ , he thought. _It was the wrong thing to say to Cathryn._

The old alien pressed his lips together, voicing his conclusion in his mind. Cathryn thought her death was an acceptable risk, because her life had already been damaged. Oh, he was going to have to tread carefully with this child. She'd be more likely to sacrifice herself for others.

But what about Bec? Why would she put her life at risk like that? She was a mother. Surely she had a deeper understanding of how important family was. He knew she was terrified of him. She thought him capable of performing the cyberdisation on her. She had determined that was why he had shown it to them. This was their consequence. Their punishment. Yes. absolutely terrified. She had no qualms about showing her resentment towards him but did she dislike him so much she'd be willing to make him suffer the loss of his descendants? If their plan had worked, he would have thought his girls were dead. How could she make him suffer needlessly like that when she understood how it felt to be missing her own children? No. That wasn't it. It had to be something else.

The Doctor's mouth turned down into a deep frown. Had Bec suffered something similar to Cathryn? Humans! He clenched his jaw. _No. No, calm down_ , he gave himself an order. It had to be more than that. Just because a child suffered an assault didn't mean they would constantly run away. What was it? What was it? Why?

The Doctor's look hardened. It was freedom. They were risking everything for their freedom. The extra freedoms he'd started giving them weren't enough. _How...human_ , thought the alien.

The sooner Bec and Cathryn finished their transformations, the better. He knew the need for freedom was inherent in human genetics. And he knew humans could be phenomenally incredible creatures. _Just look at Rose_ , he thought. But right now, after seeing how at least two of his descendants, Cathryn and her brother, had been harmed by human crimes, how Bec and Cathryn had almost destroyed themselves, almost got him killed, and almost enabled the Cybermen to take over an entire planet in their human need to be free, he was ready for this to be over.

Perhaps there was a way to safely increase the changes. Perhaps he could come up with a supplementary medicine of some kind. _No_ , he thought. It wasn't safe to mess with their biology. It was going to be hard enough on their human bodies as it was.

One thing was for sure though. He'd be doing a much better job keeping an eye on them. And he'd be keeping them busy. He knew Cathryn especially would need his help. But helping her to see she was just as valuable as someone who'd never been assaulted would take time, time and telepathic counseling. The Doctor paused, knowing she wasn't ready for that. _Perhaps when she's older_ , he thought.

At least the family bond would help stabilise her. Would stabilise them. As the Bond grew, their privacy would decrease. But their understanding and his ability to help them would get stronger. They would know what his limits were and of course, he would never submit them to cyberdisation to prove a point. No, once the Bond grew, understanding would grow too. It wasn't something they could avoid, and it wasn't something he could change. But it was something that would make dealing with them easier. At least they'd never be able to run away from him again. He'd always be able to sense them.

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Initially Cathryn traversed to her room and took a huddled position on her bed after deciding she needed a brisk lukewarm shower. Anything to expunge the sweat and stickiness she seemed to carry. Anything to expel the memories of seeing her friend's agonizing death occur over and over again. She swallowed as she ran a brush through her still damp hair.

 _That was Bec. Just different circumstances._ Cathryn breathed. It would have been so simple that a slip of fate would have caused that Bec to be in this position and the girl Cathryn knew to be cyberdised, dying wretchedly in her place. She was the one that took the call when Mickey panicked, thinking they had been caught and not this poor woman. This duplicate. A woman with her own husband and children and she….

Putting a hand to her mouth, she bent over, gripping her stomach. Her cheeks burned. What would she have done. Had she had known. Had they have known….was there anything they really could have done or would they just allow Bec's duplicate to walk straight to her own slaughter and be cut to pieces for….

 _No._ Cathryn shook her head. The mere idea would have been repugnant. Mickey knew that was never their intent. Mickey, he would….

Mickey was gone. As brave as he was and as smart as he was, she had caught a glimpse of his face and heard his voice. She heard the Doctor. _Time Lord justice._ Cathryn shivered and she felt her hands tremble. They would never ask Mickey to die for them but after all the courage he had displayed, would anyone remember it and his tenacity but the two of them?

 _Mickey._ Tears came to Cathryn's eyes. _God I hope you're safe. I hope you stay safe._

What else were her prayers good for?

She heard a knock on the door and froze. _The Doctor?_ Every fiber of her being tensed. She could feel her heart pounding in her ears. If he came back to… to do that thing. To get inside her mind, she didn't know how she could resist him. She knew she couldn't fight him but… _God please, please, please… not again._ It was her silent internal plea. She couldn't stand it. She remembered writing the chapter when Sara felt as though she were in a solitary room consumed by shadows that came off the very walls. The Doctor had brought his own set of shadows to haunt her and if he assumed that leash again, she didn't know where she would run, trapped in the dark interior of her own mind.

She remained silent. Frozen in position. Her body trembling hard. A door wouldn't keep him out. No door in the TARDIS would. In those moments, she started to pray helplessly. A child's prayer. One she remembered from so long ago.

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall….shall not want;"

She saw the handle turn.

"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside still waters;"

Her voice seemed to fade as her door opened.

"He restoreth my soul…" She said as her throat became dry. "He restoreth my soul…." What were the next words?

"He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." It was Bec's voice. Soft. Near a whisper but steady as she crept into the room where Cathryn was occupying.

The relief of her presence overwhelmed Cathryn as tears came to her eyes. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me…" Unable to complete the rest of the psalm, her voice faded. "It feels like it's been so long since I've gone to Church. And I know, God is everywhere but…" She breathed hard. "The more alien he makes us and the less human, I feel like he is taking God from us too."

"Then let's go," Bec suggested simply as though it were an easy matter.

"Where?" the brunette asked. "We can't leave the TARDIS. He said…."

"Like you said, God is everywhere, but we can find somewhere where… where we can feel closer to him. There's so many rooms, those we haven't seen. How about we find one that's just for us?" the blond suggested. Her eagerness to find an alternate location wasn't without a reason. A secondary location might be one the Doctor wouldn't frequent as highly. Surely he would account for the obvious. Their rooms and the library. But the ship was infinite. Maybe in that measure, a place they could find would suit their needs and allow them the slightest bit of comfort in the hardest of times.

"Okay." Cathryn nodded finally, pushing herself to her feet. "A place of our very own." Their bedrooms didn't seem like they would qualify but the two needed sanctuary and as they finally wandered down the hallway, it was just a question of where.

"How do you think it works?" Bec asked absently. "I mean, the rooms. Do you think he makes them all, or..?" She was thinking about Amy's request that her and Rory's new bedroom, after their old one had been deleted by House, not have bunk beds. The request implied that either the Doctor created the rooms himself, or that they were created to his specifications. However, he hadn't seemed to know exactly what to expect when he had first stepped into the newly remodelled console room after regenerating from Ten into Eleven. But the real motivation behind her question was the indistinct anxiety that if he had created every room they would be somehow tainted by that very act.

"The TARDIS makes them as part of the architectural configuration program using Block Transfer Computations. The Doctor can direct it at times but the TARDIS can do it by herself or the Doctor can direct as he pleases through the bond with the TARDIS. It's….well, remember when Clara was put into a room that resembled the console room but it wasn't?"

"You mean, ' _Journey to the Center of the TARDIS_ '," Bec clarified. Yes, she remembered how the TARDIS seemed to lead her in there where Clara ran in circles but didn't seem to find a way out until the Eleventh Doctor pulled her into his console room. ' _She's creating a labyrinth_ ,' he'd warned the men scavenging on his ship.

"It was a temporal bubble in the form of a console room the TARDIS created to protect her. The Doctor only knew about it after it was done since it was part of the TARDIS protocols so no, he doesn't create each room. And if we can interact with the TARDIS on a small scale, she is able to design a room just like she did for our bedrooms. That was her link with our minds trying to give us what we wanted." Cathryn thought of the TARDIS and then her mind drifted to Lilly. The problems with her room on that ship because Lilly panicked and caused an offense to the TARDIS, which resulted in the sparse quarters she was now in. But if this ship was capable of creating the smallest temporal bubble for them as a comfort, what a respite it would be for them at this very uncertain and increasingly dark hour.

Bec frowned slightly, thinking about the room she'd been given - she still refused to think of it as _her room_ , and she'd left it the moment she realised where she was. She had simply assumed he'd created those rooms, first the echo of her room from home and then the sparse hotel suite that followed it, but, she had to admit, she hadn't given the matter much thought beforehand. She slowed to a stop as an idea came to her, causing Cathryn to likewise pause and turn back to face her.

"Do you think, then..." she posed, her words slow as she mulled over the possibility even as she asked. "I mean, the whole thing about her being telepathic, that translating she does for us… What if we just, sort of, _asked_ her for something, somewhere that's ours? Do you think she'd…?" Bec knew that, ultimately, it was the Doctor's TARDIS. Even if she could offer them the sanctuary they were after, he would not be refused if he sought access. "I don't want him there," she stated, her voice soft but fierce.

She didn't know how long they had until they could try to escape again, how much they may have _changed_ , but she wished there was somewhere she could go, where _they_ could go, where they didn't have to fear him. "What if," she began asking slowly again, her gaze locked on some unfathomable nothing on the floor. "What if we have rules… in that- if he's looking for us, and we hide in there, he'll come in, we won't be able to stop him. But, what if we have some sort of anteroom, a foyer, and, if he's looking for us, we meet him there so he doesn't come in?" she asked with a wince. The only reasons she could think of why he would be looking for them weren't reasons she would want to meet him in a foyer - she would avoid him altogether if she could, but she couldn't see that he would simply set aside this apparent desire for dominance that he seemed so determined to take, that stood at odds with the show. "I mean… I don't want to, but…" She shook her head. "I don't know what to do, but he…" She shook her head again, hugging herself around the middle, not even noticing the way she was instinctively protecting the inside of her elbows just at the fear of the absent man.

Cathryn was silent. The TARDIS might be a bit fond of them to a degree but she was bonded to the Doctor. And the bond between the Doctor and the TARDIS was so interwoven, he was essentially a part of the TARDIS as much as the TARDIS was a part of him. She swallowed, trying to think of how to word it but decided against semantics. It would serve neither of them.

"Bec, there is a reason why a TARDIS would commit suicide or let itself die when her pilot dies. You see, the pilot comprises one third of the TARDIS program. They're not really just technology that was built in the manner we think of them. They were grown. Block Transfer Computations is a form of math that gives them structure essentially. The essence of matter is structure, which comes from that form of Distributed Cluster Algebra." She bit her lip. "That's what plays a hand in the physics of the TARDIS and why it can do what it can do. It uses this form of mathematics to alter reality and add rooms. Temporal bubbles, but the Doctor's mind is incorporated into the TARDIS matrix. So….the TARDIS could make another space for us but the Doctor would have to agree not to intrude past the foyer." She clasped her hands tightly in front of her, the idea of pleading for just this amount of space or respect, an understandable notion for a human but for the Doctor, given what he had just done, privacy was likely very foreign. And she wasn't sure he would be amenable to a bargain after the images she sent him.

But at the moment, the shadowy grip that had coalesced in their minds, the inky web that wove its way through her core was gone. But what certainty did they have that he wouldn't try again if he wished to? She shuddered. Trying to submerge themselves in a temporal bubble might risk that event occurring again. It was the last thing she wanted.

"If…." She took a deep breath. "If we want to have him not pass the foyer, we would have to talk to him." Cathryn winced at the idea and Bec grimaced, clutching her elbows tighter. "I'm sorry," she whispered, wishing she had a better solution. She would take it if there was one in a heartbeat. "I don't know what else to do."

"I know," Bec agreed softly. She knew, even as she'd made the suggestion, that it was unlikely to the point of absurdity, that he'd never give them even that small dispensation, but that didn't stop her from hoping, wishing. "I just wish that…" she began, but her voice trailed off. What did she wish? That they had somewhere where they could hide from him? That they didn't have to fear what he'd do to them in the first place? That he could, _would_ , take them home? That they'd never left in the first place? _If wishes were fishes…_ They couldn't change the reality they were trapped in, they just couldn't wish it away, but Bec was dreading the moment he forced his reality on them once more with his presence, dreading it to the point of feeling nauseous at the very idea. Even the very prospect of talking with him, making this or any kind of request… He used to be such a hero… A broken and fallible hero, but a hero nonetheless - her favourite character on her favourite show. Now, however, even just the thought of the Time Lord, the possibility of even having to stand in the same room as him, had her terrified almost to the point of an anxiety attack.

"Maybe I could try…." Cathryn's voice faded. Try what? Talking to him for the two of them? Oh, she shuddered at the idea. She wanted to think she was strong in her ideas and had some semblance of courage but when she remembered what it was like with him manipulating her mind, she didn't feel that strong anymore. She felt terrified. And if she tried to talk to him and then said the wrong thing, she could make things even worse for them. The memories she managed to send to him were a concerted effort and she didn't know how she managed at the time. Likely adrenaline and terror provided a heightening form of encouragement. What would her defense be this time? Well formed words were nothing for someone that could just take over her mind when he wanted to.

"Try what?" Rose had come upon the two girls huddled in the corridor in apparent consternation and her voice edged on a bit of wariness. She was still stricken by the grief of watching her mother die, beg to die right in front of her eyes. _If they hadn't run off, could she have lived?_ She remembered how panicked the Doctor was when he couldn't find them while Pete urged him to go back to try to find Jackie.

And then she watched Bec's duplicate die, had sat with her body while waiting for the Doctor to return. She shuddered. _But Mickey…._ he had helped them. Oh, she knew the Doctor's fury with Mickey, but that was a point of confusion, which crossed her mind. She knew Mickey and, though he never saw eye to eye with the Doctor, he would not be that dismissive of the duplicate Bec's or Jackie's life. _That's not like him._

She swallowed, considering what remained of the Doctor's family and then thinking of her own while the ever present fatigue that seemed to surround her since their time in that parallel universe, continued apace. "So, wha' are you both goin' to try this time?" she asked, a hint of sharpness to her voice. _Haven't we been through enough today?_

And Cathryn could only look at this companion with a sensation of just utter loss. She teetered on the choice: be silent or speak with Rose knowing she could very well repeat everything she said right back to the Doctor to whom she was so loyal to. But then she pressed her lips together. _At this point, what does it matter? There's no point…._

"We wanted to ask for some time alone and have him respect a boundary because…." She paused. "You see, we lost our one way back home that we knew about. Our way back to our family. That was taken from us just before. Like so many other things."

"The Doctor didn't take you away from your world." Rose pointed out. "You came here. So, you shouldn't be goin' on about that." She bit her lip. _Way home?_ Rose shook her head absently. Perhaps since the girls thought they had come to a different universe, their home was more accessible… somehow even though the Doctor thought it impossible. It was too much for her at the moment. She continued in her tirade. " And you both jus' dissapeared leavin' him and _me_ to think you died. You…" She was a moment at a loss for words. "If either of you knew about my Mum." Tears came back to her eyes as she thought of Jackie dying in that Cyberman suit. "Did you?"

Cathryn glanced at Bec who was staring at the floor in front of her. Neither wanted to especially answer this question. What might they have done or reacted in Rose's position.

"The Doctor once took you back in time to see your father right before he died. So you could say good-bye. He told you the event needed to happen since it was a fixed part of your past but in the last moment before the car hit, you pushed your dad out of the way. What happened then?" Cathryn turned the question around.

"The reapers came," Rose answered finally. "They were killin' people to…" She frowned, trying to remember how the Doctor phrased it. "Steralisin' the damage in time until Dad ran out to fix it." She shook her head. "Because he had to."

"And, like that, we don't know what would have happened if anything was changed and we were afraid to take the risk. What if things became worse? If the reapers came or Pete died too…."

"Or the Cybermen attack wasn't stopped," Bec volunteered.

"We don't know everything and we're not visionaries," Cathryn said firmly. "I wish it were that simple but we're not. If we could have changed it, stopped it, I swear we would have but we couldn't." Her voice faltered. It was still a shoddy offering to someone that had seen the semblance of her mother die. She breathed in. She wasn't going to excuse the opportunity they had taken to get away from their captor. And when they found the chance to do so again, they would take it.

But that wasn't the point, at the moment, she supposed. "Jackie, your mother is still alive, still waiting for you back home." Her tone was bitter. "Still there to visit whenever you wish. We don't have that luxury." Cathryn just shook her head. "Not anymore."

"No," Rose denied with a shake of her head. "That's not good enough. Because you two weren't just… You didn't just not do anything, you _ran away_. If it was so bad, you could have stayed in the TARDIS. The Doctor would have let you if you explained it to him, but you didn't. I know you and he don't get along, but I thought _we_ did. But I watched you die, and you just _ran away_." The young woman's voice was becoming sharper and sharper the longer she spoke, her anger at everything that had happened finally coming to the forefront. She had thought she understood them, and they her, especially Cathryn given the insight she had shared, but she just couldn't understand this.

Bec winced slightly under the Londoner's tirade, trying to decide how to defend themselves even as she wondered at the wisdom of doing so. She thought of comparing Rose's own experiences with their own situation, just as Cathryn had done, reminding Rose of how hard she fought to return to the Doctor when he sent her home from Satellite Five during the Dalek attack, how she was willing to give up everything to return to where she felt she belonged, where she felt she was needed, just like they were willing to risk everything to try to return to their families, to her children. However, if anything got back to the Doctor, then it might compromise their next attempt when Pete's world became available to them once more.

In the end, it was Cathryn who spoke up. "Rose, consider Madam De Pompadour. She was the patron for so much art and architecture. She advised the king in matters of local and international politics, a feminist of her time," she said slowly. "Now, imagine we didn't save her, or that we couldn't get back and lived alongside her. How much of that history that was supposed to happen might change? With the Doctor, he saves lives and planets all the time. What will happen if we're there when we're not supposed to be? Just like we could have changed things with the Cybermen, we could change things here. It's too dangerous for us to stay, dangerous for _you_ , and dangerous for everyone else. But where else can we go to avoid changing anything but another universe altogether?"

"We never wanted to hurt anyone," Bec piped up. "That's what we wanted to stop."

Rose frowned to herself at the explanation. "Sorry, you'll need to explain to me, just a shop girl here. He says you know the future. You say you don't know the future, but that you ran away so you wouldn't change the future? How does that work?"

The two girls shifted uneasily again. Once more she was asking about topics they didn't want the Doctor to understand, considering the danger they had seen in other stories, other possibilities when whovians fell into the Doctor's path.

"Well," Bec tried nervously. "It's like you knowing about Madam De Pompadour," she said, going back to Cathryn's explanation. "You know about her, a bit anyway, because she's from the past, her life has happened. For us…" She shuffled again. "Well, we're from a bit further along that you are."

"You are?" Rose asked in surprise. They'd met the two in her own time. It had never even occurred to her that they might have been from another. However, they'd still come from a whole different universe, and, even though the universe with her father alive have been a little ahead of them, the differences were so great she couldn't have known their future, but these two seemed to know both histories so intimately. "But-" she began, but Cathryn cut her off.

"Rose, I'm sorry. I know you mean well, but… It's not safe. It's not something we can explain."

Rose nodded slowly as she mulled over their words. _They really are trying_ , she realised thinking of the Doctor. If they would just talk to each other she was sure they could work things out, but, from what she could see, neither side seemed willing to meet in the middle. "Alright," she agreed softly. " 'M sorry," she added, rubbing her forehead as the fatigue of the day hit her again after her brief burst of angry energy. " 'M just a bit tired."

"I'm sorry for… well, for everything, for today," Bec said gently, remembering Rose's horror in the episode when she'd found out what had happened to her mum, when the Cyberman who had been Jackie had approached them in the factory. The Doctor had said Rose had watched her mum die. Was that what he meant? That she had seen what had been done to her mother's duplicate? Seen the kind of death she'd suffered? "I mean… your mum's okay, but, I'm sorry for the other Jackie. I couldn't even imagine what it must have…" The vision of herself half converted and begging for help swam through her mind once more. Even if she wasn't Rose's mother, that poor woman and countless others had suffered the same horrifying fate.

Bec was genuinely overwrought at the concept. Her voice thick with emotions. In the end, she managed a whisper. "If there was anything we could have done… I wish there was. The Doctor showed us…." She turned away from Rose not wanting the blonde to see the tears in her eyes and certainly not wishing to faint from the images that flashed through her mind. Her parallel self begging for death. That must have been how the other Jackie was while Rose was present. Begging for death, insane at the sight of herself encased in the Cyberman armour. It was all so….

She placed her hand against the wall to steady herself, feeling dizzy at the mere memory. Cathryn cupped her hand under her elbow, looking at her with concern.

Rose couldn't help herself. Her eyes widened at Bec's obvious state as she stepped forward to take the other girl's arm. "'S okay. 'M sorry. And… you're tired. We're all a bit knackered but…" She hesitated, looking at Cathryn. "What did the Doctor have you see?"

Cathryn glanced at her. "But… didn't he tell you? He… the recording of the other Bec dying on a loop. He played that back and we… we thought he would…" She watched the companion's face suffuse in color. Indignation.

"He showed you that!" she exclaimed. No, she hadn't known. Rose had thought of the Doctor's summary, telling her that Cathryn had been abused but failed to mention what prompted the confession.

"He…" Cathryn's voice was weak. It was still important for Rose to have faith in the Doctor and if they destroyed it so singlemindedly… even in their own desperation, how could they be that selfish? But she thought Rose had already known. That the Doctor had told her. Because surely, with their relationship… no. The Doctor had kept Rose in the dark before. About Jack Harkness, the Bad Wolf paradox and other things. "I'm sorry. Just forget about it. It's… I shouldn't have said-"

"I can't forget it now, can I?" Rose cut her off. "'Cause he goes too far. Doesn't think all the time." She was surprised Cathryn was on some level defending the Time Lord when her dislike of him was clear. Maybe their relationship wasn't as lost as she thought it was. "Why didn't you tell me before I started takin' you off?"

"Because….." The brunette glanced at her feet. "Because I realized, I'm a hypocrite. All that stuff about your father. The Doctor told you not to intervene and I… for so long I didn't understand. Thought you were just selfish or you didn't care about what happened to others. When the reapers came, I don't know, I thought you were just acted to get something you wanted without thought to anyone else but now…" Cathryn shrugged. "Now, if it had been my father, I could have done the same. I miss him so much, the part of me that's without him just aches. It's empty and if there was a chance to save him, logic might not have applied." Tears came to her eyes. "If I could just have those hours or even minutes. That extra time to say good-bye or tell him all the things that mattered, I would have… and now you saw the other Jackie die. Your mother and I would have been angry too because it didn't matter. If she was my mother no matter the world… I would just want that time. Would want her alive… and I'm so sorry, she's not." Tears came freely down her face. "I swear I am. We would never…" She choked on a lump forming in her throat. "Never trade her life just so we could run away. I would rather…"

"No," Rose said softly, tears already in her eyes. "Been enough death, yeah. Too much." She took a step towards them. "I believe you." And before either of them could stop her, she put her arms around them. "I know you wouldn't let my mum die. Jus' needed to hear it, I guess." She felt their tears. The two girls were trembling as she embraced each one. Just what had her Doctor done? But for now…

"I'll talk to the Doctor. Pick your spot. I'll tell 'im not to cross it," Rose said adamantly.

"Rose, he might not listen." Bec's voice was bleak. After all, the Doctor found excuses before. He could rationalise his motivations better than anyone.

"Oh, he'll listen to me," the blonde declared fervently. She had a thing or two to say to him. She needed to see her Mum first but the next… forcing his granddaughters to watch Bec die as a consequence. No wonder they were terrified. And he hadn't even told her. Why didn't he ask first whether that was in anyway appropriate? Why didn't he…?

She took a deep breath before looking at Bec and Cathryn. "The two of you better get some sleep." Rose intended the same after a chat with the Doctor. True she had been fatigued before but this new information had given her new raw surge of energy. More adrenaline. Besides she didn't want to sleep right now. But it looked like they could.

"And you?" Bec asked.

"The Doctor and I will just be havin' a bit of a chat," Rose told them before she turned on her heel and swept down the corridor in the direction of the console room.

The two girls just watched her go. "I'm not sure if we made things better or worse." Cathryn yawned. Right now, Rose's advice was well placed. She was so tired, she was starting not to care. Why was she so tired all of a sudden? It was like a wave of undulating fatigue that hit her in the last ten minutes but she saw Bec barely steady on her feet. Then she knew. It was too much to be a coincidence. _Implant._ She thought. _Sedatives._ Even if Rose talked to the Doctor, they were bound to the implants, to the chemicals that kept them awake or unconscious. They barely managed to get back to their rooms in time.

"So much for the temporal bubble and the foyer today," Cathryn scarcely murmured to Bec at their next door rooms.

"Yeah," the blonde agreed, holding her head in one hand as she tried to refuse the irresistible fatigue that washed over her. " ' _His TARDIS, his rules_ ',' she slurred, moving towards the second of the familiar doors that had just 'happened' to appear so quickly in the hall they were travelling, too coincidental for her to believe it was such. She seriously considered just lying down where she was in the hallway, stubbornly resisting even when she couldn't resist, but, no doubt, if she stayed in the hallway, he'd know, he'd come, she'd be asleep and he'd be there. She shuddered at the thought of him looming over her like that. "We'd better…" she said, gesturing towards the rooms. "Or he'll…"

"Yeah," Cathryn said, feeling too wearied to think past the haze of fatigue. "Well, night."

Bec stumbled into her room, but still stubbornly refused the bed. She might suffer herself the next day, but she would do so gladly if it gave her some small victory. Instead, she grabbed the doona off the bed and tucked herself in as she sat on the floor and leaned back into the furthest corner from the door, watching it as though stationed as the nightwatch. As she drifted off, she silently swore at the Time Lord, hating the control he'd stolen, the power he wielded, the dominance he desired, unaware that, across the ship, he could feel the hatred she directed towards him, and despaired.

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 **Authors' Note:**

 **Sorry for the delay in bringing this chapter to you. Stresses of life have been making themselves felt (assignments, exams, preparing to move interstate -** _ **huzzah…)**_

 **Certain events or incidents were dramatized or persons and places were changed for the interest of privacy and the telling of our story.**

 **As always we would like to thank LovelyAmberLight, Almaydnis Rayne and FanFictional Authoress for their inspiration and contributions.**

 **We appreciate all your support as we say goodbye to Mickey and move on to the next chapter in our story. We hope you will keep reading.**

 **Azaadin & Emptyvoices**


	16. Ground Rules

**Chapter 16: Ground Rules**

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"Rose," the Doctor greeted at the sound of footsteps entering the console room. He knew it couldn't be anyone else. Mickey was no longer on his ship, and his granddaughters were now resting. He double checked the monitor, pulling up the schematics of the section of the ship where their rooms were, nodding with a heavy hearted satisfaction to verify their presence inside. Selecting each life sign, his gaze quickly skimmed over the readout as supplied by their implants to confirm that their sleep was indeed just that.

"I was just about it come find you," he added as he flicked the screen back to displaying his ship's current location within the vortex, his thoughts turning to the dormant nanoprobes still floating around his companion's system. He'd scanned her with his screwdriver a number of times to confirm that they were indeed inoperative, but an intensive scan by his ship's medical scanner wouldn't be remiss. Not that he intended to intervene if there was no pressing concern. It was better to let her own body naturally filter out the waste than to employ an artificial method of dialysis. "We just need to pop up to the med bay and-"

" _What the hell were you thinkin'?_ " she cut him off fiercely as she stormed up to the console, and his eyes jerked towards her in shocked surprise at her anger. "Showin' them that? That was awful, the worst thing I've ever- And you jus' _showed_ it to them! Made them watch. Made _Bec_ watch. You made Bec watch herself dying like that. Bec and Cathryn both!" Her thoughts came out disjointedly in her anger. The memory was terrible enough. At the time, she'd simply done what had to be done, supporting and comforting the woman she once considered for a friend. It didn't matter that Bec might not have fully trusted her or have felt the same way, Rose would have done the same for anyone, but seeing that other Bec's suffering, knowing so many had shared it, including her own mum…

The Doctor looked at Rose, startled momentarily by her words and fury and then his expression softened. He'd never explained it. Not properly, at least for a human. He told Rose that Cathryn thought her abuse was worse than being cyberdized but Rose wasn't in that room. He should have explained. But Rose was coping with losing the parallel version of her mother. But he inhaled and tried to rectify the situation.

"I was trying to get them to understand what they'd done, what they'd risked, for themselves and that entire earth," he explained to his livid companion. "Rose…" Oh, she was angry again. "Rose," he said gently. "The hologram provided a visual experience. That other Bec died. I thought they needed to see what she suffered because…." He breathed seeing her fiery gaze. "I didn't want them to take a life for granted. Used that Bec's life because it was convenient." He swallowed, trying to push back the insurmountable grief he felt at the time. "I thought I was seeing my granddaughter die."

"So, you forced _them_ to watch her die," Rose bit back. "An' you couldn't have just talked to them about it? Or, better yet, talked to _me_ about it first," she barked. She stared him down for a moment, and, slowly, the boiling anger in her demeanour calmed into a sizzle at his obvious dismay, as though he already understood his mistake. "I don't know how things were done on Gallifrey, but for people, humans, it's always better to try talkin' about it properly first. Me an' my mum, the worst times we ever fought was when we didn't talk about it for weeks after."

He groaned, rubbing a hand wearily down his face. "I already know you're right. It was the wrong thing to show to them. I didn't know. Not about Bec." A shadow passed over his face. "Not about Cathryn. I shouldn't have said…." He frowned, rocking back on his heels. "Nevermind. It didn't have the desired effect," he admitted defeatedly as his thoughts turned back to his children and their broken relationship, to how unexpectedly they'd reacted to his attempt to make them understand.

" ' _Desired effect?_ ' " Rose shrieked incredulously, realising that he hadn't gotten it at all. Sometimes the Doctor completely blindsided her by how much he didn't understand humans, and this was one of them. "And wha' ' _never mind_ '? You don't get out of this that easy, Doctor. _What did you say_?"

Her stare was so direct and he cringed. He couldn't lie, not to his Rose. His voice became quiet. "I asked them to think about what might have happened if they lost someone they knew. If I had lost you." He paused. "Or others."

"Me," Rose repeated, then she shook her head in incredulity. "You're pretty thick sometimes Doctor. Smartest man I know. Well, smartest Time Lord, suspect now anyway. Bec has been taken from her children. Cathryn's father is dying and you asked them that?" She stepped back. "But just the silly ape her grumblin' about domestics. They lost their families and you wanted them to think about how it would have felt to add on to their losses? No wonder, they don' want to see you." She closed her eyes, rubbing her forehead. "There's no one now. What with Mickey…." She saw his face, the cold shadow that passed over in just mentioning Mickey's name.

"Mickey will never see them again," he declared. "Doesn't matter what kind of friend he was. His idiocy nearly killed them."

She poked him in the chest. "He didn't do it on purpose. Could have explained it to him. To all of them. I told you once they needed patience." She sighed. "Showin' them a virtual hologram should never have been done. But you didn't ask anyone." She stared at him. "You didn't even ask me."

"They are Time Lord children, Rose. They need firm discipline."

"And 'pparently so do you. Would never have let you do it in the first place!" She put her hands on her hips. "You haven't made your family any closer. You're driving them further apart. My mum and I, we're a family. I always come back to her but….. Doctor, if they want to run from you, 's just, you need to ask yourself why?" she challenged. "Why are they running?"

"Because they're still part human and that need you lot have to be free." He shook his head. "Not something Time Lords have."

"You sure?" Rose asked. "How often do you run, Doctor. How long have you been running and who from? Because you do. You run." She brushed her hair out of her face. "So maybe their runnin' is less to do with them being human and more about you. I think… I think you've been runnin' a long time Doctor." She nodded slightly. "Maybe the girls take more after you than you think."

The Doctor blinked. He didn't consider the fact that his girls inherited his predilection for running. Simply the innate human desire to be free. But what if it was both? Oh, how complicated children were. Adult human but moreover children as he saw them. He'd considered their biological maturity but only as far that it should account for them not running off during a Cybermen attack.

But Rose helped him see this from another perspective. Another angle. How he had been running from the very time he stole the TARDIS from the museum with the Celestial Intervention Agency hot on his heels. His own great grandfather, the Head of House unhappy with him at the time. Reprimanding him.

' _Why can't you be more like your brother?'_

But what did that matter? His brother was dead or just simply gone. Dimensionally displaced and might as well be dead.

He turned to Rose. "Yes, I run. I run a lot. But I tell you not to wander off for good reason. Rose think," he pleaded. "Even with you, there are aliens who would love to get their hands on you. To find out information about me. For my girls, it is far worse. I can run off a bit because I can protect myself. They can't. If they do, without medication, they will die. Even once they don't need it anymore - the amount of people and parties out there who would give _anything_ to get their hand on a Time Lord, not to mention _Seers_ … They have no means or knowledge of how to protect themselves, no idea about the dangers to them." He sighed. "I wish there was a better way to help them. To give them what they want but I can't." He threw his hands up in the air. "I just can't. In a heartbeat, Rose, I would go back to their world, to find my family. I more than anyone know what the loss they are suffering. But I've spent hours and days so far on just that. I can't. I just can't. I wish…." His voice broke a little. He could only think how the universe despised him and whether it was the same amount as his girls did.

"I never wanted this for them. But they came to me and…." He shook his head. "I couldn't let them die."

Rose exhaled slowly, her eyes softening. She still tried to remain firm. "They're not Time Lord," she reminded him. "I mean, not on the inside. They're human. They need human things. And…" She grimaced, remembering the conversation. "They said, there was a way back home from that world. Is there Doctor?"

The Doctor shook his head sadly. "No, wish that there were," he said softly, remembering how painful it was for him when he sealed his children safely away in the other universe, those, how painful it likewise was for his grandchildren to be separated from the only family they knew. "But I'll never stop looking-" He broke off again, thinking longingly of all the descendants who awaited him in that world, all the generations of his family who had thrived even when Gallifrey had fallen. He still didn't even know what their families were like, apart from what little he'd gleaned from the girls about their immediate families. Cathryn's parents, brother and niece, Bec's children… How many more descendants did he have in their families?

Things were never simple. If Cathryn and Bec would only come to accept him as family. Feel the Bond not as a burden but as the gift it was, this might not be so difficult. He stared at the console in from of him, adjusting a lever, thinking hard.

"Well, have you talked to them about it? Explained it to them like you did to me?" She didn't even need to see the guilty realisation ghosting across his face to already know the answer to that question.

He pressed his lips together. Perhaps they didn't understand the concept fully about being in a parallel dimension. Maybe they thought they were that much closer to home then, Rose's revelation would make sense. Then their confusion was a basis of misunderstanding and desperation. Perhaps, they were told there was a rift or convergence that would assist them to their world. After all, how much would he long to go back to Gallifrey and see his people, his family again? Pain went through him and not just his but the grief he felt from Cathryn and Bec. Their emotions stills so potent even as they slept, their homesickness. They were dreaming. Sad dreams about home. A home they couldn't reach. A home they felt they were being imprisoned from.

"It's not that simple…." he started, thinking how his girls didn't believe in their genetic origins much less would accept any statement or offer made on his behalf. "Rose." He placed his hands on her shoulders. "They think I'm experimenting on them with my own biodata. I heard it in their thoughts. They think… only one of them has a chance of living."

"What aren't you telling me, Doctor? Because I know you're not telling me things. And for this, you have to tell them they're not going to die!" She shook her head angrily, silently berating him. "Back on that planet, that other Earth, you were talking about them and some… telepathic…" This time she shook her head as she tried to remember the words he used when talking about his relationship with the two women, but the closest she could remember was that at the time she had thought about having a cuppa with her mum which was somehow related to the subject.

"Telepathic bond," the Doctor supplied.

"Right," Rose agreed. "Because that sounds awfully invasive to me," she pointed out sharply, remembering how the girls had expressed the wish for him to honour their boundaries. "What is it then? Getting into their heads like the TARDIS translatin'? Just what are you doing to them anyway?" she asked, doubt slipping into her voice for the first time since the women had joined them. She knew the Doctor was just trying to do the best he could, even though he was making mistakes along the way, which wasn't unexpected in any family, especially not one as unconventional as his appeared to be. Now, however, she wondered just how hard he was pushing Cathryn and Bec in unseen ways. She knew they were afraid. Exactly what had he done, was he doing, to fuel that fear?

"I didn't do it. The telepathic bond between family members occurs naturally between Time Lords within the same house, with the same blood. I didn't cause it, in fact, _they_ reached out to _me_. As soon as their latent telepathy began to manifest _they_ initiated the Bond, like ducklings, imprinting on the first thing they see. All I did was accept them."

"So they didn't even realise. Did you even talk to them? Explain it to them before accepting it? If they didn't realise, if they couldn't control it - but maybe they didn't want it. Maybe they'd have wanted you _not_ to accept it?"

The Doctor gave her a disgusted look at the very suggestion. He didn't blame her for her lack of understanding. Humans were not considered a telepathic race as a rule, even though they had the latent potential, potential that some individuals learned to tap into as a result of various triggering circumstances and exposures. Rose, both innately and due to her time with him, was more open to and knowledgeable of telepathy than most of her kind, but even she had no possible way to understand how intrinsic that ability was for Time Lords, how vital a part of them it was. She didn't realise just how cruel her suggestion was.

"Rose, if I didn't accept them, they'd have been without a House. With no one to teach them, to model telepathy to them, their ability would be severely stunted, deformed even, and, most likely, would eventually cause insanity. It would be sentencing them to telepathic exile, a life of isolation, and I _won't_ make them suffer like I-" He cut off, breathing in sharply through his nose at the very possibility of his two little children suffering the same silent, loneliness as him. They would never experience the community of thought on Gallifrey, never feel the whisper of presence of a whole race of their own people, but he would see to it that they were never alone like he had been after their world had fallen.

It was one of the greatest offences for a Time Lord to refuse to receive their own child into their house, an offence that had very rarely occurred. Even if one family member refused, any adult of the house in question could give their consent. If there was a legitimate reason why a child couldn't join their blood house, they would immediately be adopted out to another suitable house during that very impressionable and very brief window of opportunity when the family bond could be established. Even if Cathryn and Bec hadn't been his own blood, the Doctor would still have adopted them, not wishing the devastating emptiness he'd suffered on any child of Gallifrey.

"It doesn't matter if they don't want it; they _need_ it. Their biology is still asserting itself and their telepathy is just developing. Just because they're not used to it, just because they don't want it, that won't make it go away. And, regardless of their opinion on the matter now, in a few hundred years, they'll be glad not to be alone."

Rose paused, silently considered his final words for a long moment, slightly shaken as she recalled the words he'd spoken to her just before they'd met the two women. ' _You can spend the rest of your life with me, but I can't spend the rest of mine with you. I have to live on. Alone._ ' Except that he wouldn't be alone anymore, not if Bec and Cathryn had the same unending lifespan as him. They would be with him all the days that she could never be. Suddenly, even though they had come after her, she felt like she was the one intruding, the one that didn't really fit in their motley group. More than ever, she found herself homesick for her own mother, just to see her face again, to talk with her about the mundane aspects of life, to be with her because she _was_ alive.

But then her thoughts turned back to Bec and Cathryn, considering their recent conversation in light of this new revelation to her, their desire for privacy when they were seemingly lacking more than she'd known.

"Do you know what they asked me?" Rose asked him softly. "Just before, in the hall? They want somewhere in here where you're not allowed, a room that's just for them." She paused for a moment to let her words sink in. "I'm not blind, Doctor. And don't think for a _minute_ that I'm stupid. I know things aren't good between you, but I'd be a moron if I couldn't see how afraid they are, and it's _you_ they're afraid of."

"I know you're trying, they are too," she explained gently. "They're trying to do what they think is right, if in their own way, just like you are."

The young Londoner felt compassion for both the Doctor and the women she'd left in the hall. She could see the misunderstanding between them, the lack of communication, but she'd also seen both how much the Doctor cared from them as well as evidence of their caring for the Doctor. They'd only known him such a short time, and yet they spoke favourably to her of him. She was under no illusions that it would be an easy problem to fix, but she was determined to bridge them together and, given the girls' fear and the powerlessness they obviously felt, he was the one that needed to take the initiative, reaching out the first hand of reconciliation to them, even if she had to direct and compel him all the way.

"Rose," he pleaded. "I'm trying to say…." He inhaled through his nose. "I'm telling you-"

"I'm not the one you should be tellin'," she interrupted suddenly. "Not that you should keep things from me, but you should be talkin' to _them_ about it, not to me.

"If you want to fix things, it needs to start with _you_ ," she explained, her voice compassionate but firm. " _You_ need to take the first step, but a proper one, not all this _bickering_ that's gone on so far. Talk to them. Give them the space they need. Remember, how hard this is for them. They're only human, no matter how Time Lord they may be."

The Doctor paused, contemplating her advice before adjusting the mental parameters of the ship, giving them their own wing in the TARDIS with somewhere comfortable at the entrance where he could meet with them _._ It was better than nothing and if they were willing to meet him halfway, so was he. Something this simple he could manage. He pursed his lips in thought.

"Very well, I'll grant their request on condition."

"Condition?" Rose asked. "They just want-"

"Oh Rose, I know what they want and that's fine. But you have to see both girls need help. Cathryn especially. I will give them what space I can as long as she meets with me every three days to talk." He paused. "For counseling." He didn't want to mention the kind of counseling it was but seeing her condition and how pale she had become, she needed quicker intercession than waiting.

"One hour," Rose finally said.

"Two," the Time Lord insisted.

"One hour and fifteen minutes. Final offer. I'll take it back to them to see if they agree."

Rose knew it was a form of blackmail, one that Cathryn didn't need. Obviously, she shared something horridly painful to the Doctor. She knew about the abuse, but not the details. In this case, she would rather have a female therapist work with Cathryn but that simply wasn't possible.

"Fine. I'll talk to her. But first….before any of this is done, I want to go back home. See my Mum. I have to make sure…."

The Doctor nodded. "Of course you do." He adjusted the controls as Rose lent her assistance. She turned to him, tucking a blond strand of hair behind her ear while releasing the central destabilizer unable to detach her mind from his now extremely reluctant kin. "What about Bec and Cathryn? We bring them, it could-"

"No," the Doctor interrupted, his voice firm. He boded no room for argument. "They will remain on the TARDIS until their attitude towards me improves." He sighed as Rose bit the bottom of her lip in concern, thinking of this dilemma. "Rose." He gentled his tone. "I can't risk them running off again. I won't. Not so soon. After what happened last time….what could have happened…." The memory of the parallel dying Bec ran through his mind. "Not anymore. I tried to treat them like…."

"Human?" Rose asked. She knew what he was trying to say intuitively.

"Human," he confirmed with a nod. "I tried to have patience. It's not enough and it won't be. Not for what's coming." He was thinking of their next step in their Time Lord and biological maturity.

"Wha's comin'?" the blonde repeated, but the Doctor was silent, his face pulled into a frown yet still resolute. She shivered despite herself. _I'm goin' home_ ,she tried to offer herself encouragingly to bolster her confidence but still the Doctor's ominous words did not sit well with her. "What do you mean? Wha's comin'?"

"Not now. We're…" he started before suddenly the ground gave a soft thud meaning they had fully materialized and landed. "Ah well, home now. What do you say we meet Jackie just in time for tea?" He grimaced internally at the thought of their upcoming arrival and reunion. But he knew his Rose needed this.

At the same time, Rose was watching him, shaking her head as her tongue by habit stuck to the roof of her mouth. She gave a whistling sigh while the Doctor took his overcoat in preparation.

Somehow Rose didn't think her Mum would be satisfied with the Doctor's obvious dodge to her question.

On that part. Neither was Rose.

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Cathryn pulled herself from the bliss of her dreams of home and of her family to the dreary room on the TARDIS. For a time, she huddled under the covers, wishing she could simply dream this world away rather than be forced through the mechanics of the cycle of sedation, orders and other tactics the Doctor had in mind for them. It was a problem that came with knowing too much of the background in terms of research for which she could imagine such horrid solutions. Closing her eyes, she huddled in tighter before she felt a stifling sense of warmness that finally she emerged with a creak in her neck, blandly putting on the nearest clothing she could find. Yoga pants and a tee-shirt with a sweater over it. Her body seemed to be going through measures of either being very hot to extremely cold. But the ever present chill in the hallways often won out in her wardrobe choices.

She brushed out her damp hair, deciding to let it air dry from an earlier shower before she changed considering there was little reason to dry it and no one left to impress if she did. Walking out of her room, she wasn't surprised she couldn't see the console room but just the regular selection of others. Library, rose garden, wine cellar, music room and so on. The kitchen at the end of the hall for which she started to gathering her tea accoutrements to make a blend only to sit at the table, sipping the cup in resolute silence. She savored the notes of cinnamon and ginger from her beverage, thinking it was one of the small things she could still relish despite their predicament.

"Cathryn." The Doctor's voice, always foreboding behind her put her on edge as she grasped the mug between trembling hands, taking a deep breath.

He grimaced, seeing and feeling that wave of terror at his presence as he tried to make himself known appearing as unassuming as possible. He saw how she cringed at his presence. Was it because she thought or expected him to emulate her brother or her rapist? He ground his teeth at this human miscarriage of justice but thinking on how Cathryn had behaved, was he right to delay the progress of her telepathic counseling? The child seemed to need it straight away so that her mental discipline as a Time Lord would be achieved correctly. "Cathryn." He gentled his tone. "I just came to see how you were," he attempted, taking note she was only drinking tea as he moved to the cold box. "And perhaps to make you some breakfast." What did Americans like to eat? Pancakes? Eggs and bacon? Orange juice? A slew of possibilities went through his head as he reached for the eggs.

"I don't eat breakfast," she managed to him, averting his eyes, not seeing the disappointed look in them. He couldn't allow this to continue on indefinitely. Perhaps a nutrient addition to her implant could be added while she slept. Yes, it would take several days to make, but then he didn't have to be worried, at least about her physically. But he would rather not leave it unaddressed considering the frequent demands of her newly adjusting Time Lord metabolism.

"You should know, I've been very patient about your eating habits, thus far. I don't want you to force my hand but if you do-"

"What?" She interrupted. "You can't do anything worse to me than what has been done already. To either of us." She still didn't look him in the eye and he sighed, rocking back on his heels. Blowing out a breath, he tried to start over.

"I'm not here to issue threats." He pursed his lips. "But, now that I'm aware of your condition, I have to implement a form of telepathic therapy for which I am the only one in the position to give." He saw the shocked expression on her face and he sat down across from her attempting to reach out to take her hand. She jerked back. "You asked for a private area in the TARDIS? Where I wouldn't cross the threshold?" He nodded. "I'll agree on condition that you and Bec agree to my terms. For you that is telepathic therapy every three days."

" _Telepathic therapy?_ "

"Cases of abuse while rare are not unheard of on Gallifrey. Still there is a procedure to help you with the memories." He paused. "Cathryn, I promise, I'll be as gentle as I possibly can and this needn't hurt at all. It will give you the help your mind is craving right now so in the coming weeks, I'll guide you through the process by going inside your mind to-"

The splash of tea started to scald his skin and he sputtered, jumping up from the chair to rinse of his face at the nearby sink. His sonic in his hand, he managed to heal the minor burns caused by the hot water and tannins as he clenched his jaw, thinking how to deal with this very volatile granddaughter. She was already getting up to leave the kitchen only to find the door closing quickly in her face. Futilely, she tugged on the handles while he waited, his arms folded across his chest. His demeanor darkened at his youngest granddaughter who apparently was throwing a temper tantrum for not getting her way. So he shook his head at her attempts to open the door his mind had ordered previously shut.

"Oh, take your time. By all means, I'll wait. But Cathryn, you're not leaving this room until we had a proper talk." The Time Lord hesitated. "Bec too when she arrives, which I expect to be any minute."

"What do you want from me? From us? You won! Why not just make us into your little puppets again? Have us say what you want or do what you want? I can't think what was worst." Cathryn's voice was low in fury. "You trying to marry your own supposed 'granddaughter' against her will in France or selling me off as a whore to the King's bed. But then, now you know just what a whore I truly am. Maybe you saw it as fitting."

He turned and moving at incredible speed, taking her arm, pulling her away from the door, feeling a low fury at her words and the reference to his time spent with Reinette. " _Sit_." He issued the command offering no room for reprieve as she was nonetheless nearly compelled into her former chair. "And you will stay sitting until I've finished talking and you've eaten breakfast." He took a generous helping of butter, placing it into the pan, listening to it sizzle while hearing the door open to the only other person allowed entrance into the kitchen.

"Rebecca, glad you could join us. The three of us will be having breakfast along with a talk before I check in on Rose."

Bec froze in place in the doorway, wanting to flee but unable to get her legs to cooperate as terror rushed through her. She'd allowed herself to believe the naïve wish that she wouldn't see him, but that hope was contradicted in the first room she walked into. However, trapped in place as she was by her own fear, she was able to take a good look at the kitchen's two occupants, at the fearful horror etched on Cathryn's face as the anger the stiffness of his back seemed to convey even as he faced the other direction. Her fear turned to fury, and she immediately set herself on the offensive, determined to protect herself and her friend.

"What just happened here?" Bec demanded, at seeing Cathryn's frantic posture, seeing her expression laced with anxiety. Bec turned to the Doctor with disgust on her face. "What have you done now?"

"Quite simple. Having a talk. Cathryn decided to throw boiling tea in my face when she didn't like the words I said to her." He pressed his palmed to the counter to calm himself before turning to his blonde granddaughter. " So, by all means, join us. I'm making French Toast. And we will all sit and eat it together just like a family would."

"You're kidding, right?" she asked with a sneer. "Sit and eat. With _you_?"

The Doctor paused, closing his eyes and silently taking a breath through his nose. Both his girls were testing him to his limits and the day had barely begun. "Rose told me you wanted a deal," he began, deliberately calm. "A place of your own within the TARDIS." He ran one hand through his hair making a straggly mess. "Very well. I agree as long as you keep to my terms."

She winced at his tone, crossing her arms protectively over her chest as if in anger, even as she absentmindedly clutched at the insides of her elbows. He sounded tense, almost angry, which wasn't exactly what she had in mind to start the day, or any day - the thought of provoking his anger again… Actually, she hoped to spend the day without seeing him at all but knew that was a fleeting fancy. Cathryn glanced at her with a guilty expression and Bec understood that whatever words had passed had not improved the Doctor's mood.

"And, what are your terms?" Bec asked.

"Five minutes a day, you will both make yourselves available at the foyer for a check up and see if your implants are functioning properly. I know both you lot have the tendency to be….. _creative_ ," he said.

She slowly shook her head in denial, her expression stubbornly set as her mind swam back to when she'd woken up in her bed that morning. "What, you can't check the implants when you creep in while we're _asleep?_ " she challenged scathingly, her tone making it very clear that his nocturnal visit had not been appreciated.

"What do you mean?" Cathryn asked, her eyes widening slightly in horror at the additional violation.

"Oh, yes, he comes in when we're asleep, drugged out. Who _knows_ what he does," she explained furiously.

"I didn't do _anything_ ," the Doctor defended himself against her insinuation. "Yes, I checked on you both. You'd both gone far too long without treatment and I needed to make sure you were healthy and well. I would _never_ -" He paused, catching a hint of Bec's emotions that leaked through with her obvious anger and fear. "And you _know_ I'd never," he added, anger at her goading coming into his voice. That's all she'd been doing, he realised, trying to provoke him. However, he saw and felt the way she cringed back from him at even the smallest display of his anger, despite it having been her intention to get a rise out of him.

"Five minutes a day," she said, repeating his earlier condition before adding her own, "but you _never_ come in while we're sleeping." _Helpless_.

He breathed in sharply through his nose at the unspoken word that came across through the Bond, seeped so potently in emotion - fear, anxiety - that she couldn't help but project it. He even saw Cathryn frown at hearing the faintly whispered thought as though she wasn't quite sure if he heard it or not. Rose was right. His children were so afraid, afraid of _him_. He knew they were, but he was always surprised and devastated by just how deep their fear ran, and it was growing day by day.

"Alright," he agreed, nodding evenly. "I'll promise to never go near you while you're sleeping, if you see me for five minutes a day for a medical checkup, except in the case of an emergency," he qualified.

"I don't believe you," she told him with another shake of her head.

"Bec," he said gently, stepping closer to her. She flinched back, taking a much larger step away from him, but he didn't waiver in his calm projection of honesty and concern to her. "You can trust me. I won't hurt you."

She exhaled. Well, it could have been worse. Five minutes. She probably could do five minutes. She swallowed down her foreboding and tried to make the best of what they had. "Actually, the line was 'Trust me on this'," she corrected him deadpan, deciding to give him the benefit of the doubt simply because she couldn't do anything to prevent him anyway. Maybe, if she tried to trust him, he would actually keep his end of the deal.

A smile quirked at the corner of his lips at her quip, and he gestured invitingly towards the table. "How about you sit next to Cathryn. I'm making breakfast for us all."

After a slight hesitation, Bec did as she was asked, nervously squeezing along the path that kept her as far from the Time Lord as possible before slipping into the chair beside her friend.

The Doctor pretended not to notice, closing the door behind her once she entered the room and then turning back to the task of cooking. What had he been making again? It was something where he'd fry the bread in the pan with the eggs… He frowned slightly before resuming his task, listening to the few softly exchanged words behind him.

"That's okay then," Bec murmured quietly trying to reassure her friend who looked close to being sick. "Five minutes. We can do five minutes. We'll do it together."

"He's not done," Cathryn whispered.

"Quite right. Cathryn will need to see me every three days for telepathic counseling. If she breaks this rule or either of you make yourselves unavailable for a medical checkup, you will no longer have rights to use the temporal bubble."

" _Telepathic counseling?!_ " Bec looked at Cathryn. She had seen those horrid images Cathryn projected and for her what the Doctor intended to some degree was torture. Having her relive her experiences, over and over again with someone she viewed on par with her attackers. "No. That's not happening," she told him firmly, her expression set once more.

"It's not up for negotiation," he corrected her just as resolutely as he cracked an egg into the pan. "Cathryn is in need of therapy, having gone untreated all these years and I am the only one in the position to offer it," he pronounced. Cathryn's treatment was imperative. Untreated mental trauma of the kind she expressed could cause serious deformation to her developing mind and emerging telepathy. His granddaughters were already at significant risk of insanity due to their visionary abilities; he would not let her fall into madness by the way of a wholly preventable cause.

"No," Bec repeated. "I reckon I saw everything you did-" The old Time Lord breathed in sharply and raised his chin, not even having considered that Bec could have likewise received the memories Cathryn had projected. "-and Cathryn and I have known each other a long time now. Just leave it with me." Bec hated the idea of forcing therapy on Cathryn, but still offered herself up as an alternative. Unlike the Doctor seemingly intended, she wouldn't force her friend to speak before she was comfortable doing so, and she hoped Cathryn would accept her offer for what it was.

The Doctor flipped the eggs and bread and turned to face the very young girls seated at the table. "She needs _telepathic_ counseling," he explained. "The trauma is too deep and prolonged for any other method to be effective in the timeframe available to us. _I_ am the only one who can supply this. I'm the only Time Lord left and your kin. It falls to _me_ to take care of Cathryn, which I will insist upon doing."

"Don't I get a say in any of this?" Cathryn demanded angrily. She knew Bec was only trying to help, but she still found herself resentful at the two of them discussing her like a problem to be solved rather than letting her decide for herself.

"No," the Doctor answered. "Neither of you have a say. You will be submitting to telepathic counseling for your own well being, which will take place every three days without fail."

Bec dry swallowed, taking Cathryn's hand and squeezing it before turning to the Doctor. "Then, she won't be alone. You tricked us out of being medical proxy before but if you're not giving her a choice, then I will be there to help as well. That is," she added softly turning to Cathryn, "if you want me to be there, you know, so it's not just _him_. I mean, but, if you don't, that's okay too. Whatever you want." She didn't want to leave her friend to suffer him alone, especially when the memories he intending to target were so personal and painful, but she also didn't want to impose if Cathryn didn't want her there. With the gently return squeeze Cathryn offered her, Bec somehow felt that Cathryn understood and appreciated her offer.

"I see." The Doctor's voice was careful. He would have been ecstatic but he mitigated this emotion. This was what he had planned. Time Lord therapy worked better the more Time Lords that were involved and certainly Bec qualified. Including that, Bec needed help too. This way she would receive her own form of telepathic therapy without knowing it. "And you would be ready for this?"

"Why would any of us have to do this?" Cathryn exploded. "I've been through years of dealing with this and I'm fine. I've been fine for a very long time now. I don't need you trying to fix me or to make me into something I'm not." She clenched her jaw. "You're already changing me physically. Must you change me mentally too?"

"Cathryn, no one is changing you mentally," the Doctor clarified. "Now, just eat your eggs." He sat in front of them the fruits of his labors. French Toast. An egg fried in the middle of a piece of bread so the yolk stayed soft in the middle. A side of bangers. A cup of tea. Both girls stared at their plates. Cathryn had the fleeting feeling that she would be ill if she was forced to consume so much….grease.

"But either you accept my terms or you don't, which means no private area and no promises for me not crossing the threshold." He paused looking at each of his girls significantly. "Your choice."

He hoped this wouldn't take long. He said he would meet Rose in due course and he wanted to spend time with her. Before he left the ship, he would need to change the parameters of the TARDIS so neither one would find the console room or any other room that might cause themselves harm. As far as he knew, they were unstable, and couldn't be trusted to see to their own wellbeing.

He hoped that his proposals would be a start. The five minute check in would lead to perhaps dinner visits. They would be able to start to talk with him in a non threatening environment. Yes, he knew he had to get the secondary measure of their treatment underway, which was no small treat and he did a mental count of the Encyclopedia Gallifrey he had in his library.

More than enough.

But for now, one thing at a time.

"This isn't French Toast," Bec told him accusingly as she stared at her plate.

The message she was conveying had nothing to do with the meal, but he deliberately took her words at face value. " 'French Toast,' that's what I was making," he exclaimed. "I knew it was something about frying the egg and bread together."

He sat down across from them and began cutting into his own eggs, setting an example to the girls who sat unmovingly before him. "Eat up," he told them, his command sounding like an invitation. "You don't have to decide now. We'll start tomorrow, after breakfast, which you _will_ be eating, in the Zero room - not eating in the Zero room, _meeting_ in the Zero room. All you need to do is turn up as appointed," he assured them, trying to make it as easy as possible for them to conform. "Eat," he added again more firmly as the seconds dragged out.

Bec started picking at her egg and toast with her fork, while Cathryn took a small sip of the tea, grimacing slightly at the flavour. "What did you put in this?" she asked accusingly, provoking Bec to sniff and try her own. She merely frowned, not entirely sure what Cathryn was reacting to.

The Doctor, though, suddenly saw the pitfall in spiking the drink of a tea connoisseur. He had added a vial of condensed nutrients to each of their cups, pleased that he'd already come to that decision and had the vials handy before having learned of Cathryn's predilection of skipping breakfast. However, it was only intended as a supplement and, with Cathryn's eating habits as unsatisfactory as they appeared to be, the supplement was nowhere near enough to cater for her body's needs.

He pursed his lips, taking a sip of his own tea to hide his machinations. "I think it's alright," he announced cheerfully. "I thought I'd try mixing spices the way you do. You're not going to spurn my first attempt, are you?" he challenged deceptively, trying to encourage her to drink the whole cup.

"It just tastes like tea to me," Bec agreed, her voice soft and nervous as she took another sip, but Cathryn set her mug back down, and began picking at her food without eating as Bec had been doing.

"What if," Bec began slowly after having thought on his words and pronouncement during their little interlude in the conversation. "What if we think about it, but when we turn up tomorrow it's to renegotiate?"

Once more he hid his victory elation for his expression and the emotions he projected as her choice of words. ' _…_ _ **when**_ _we turn up…_ ' "I'll be happy to discuss any amendments or additional terms you wish to raise, but your health checks and the therapy session are not negotiable. I will not compromise on your medical care."

Bec nodded quickly, while internally shying away from him and his answer. Their required medical checks. He was doing something to them, changing them, changing their biology into something not human, and yet he was concerned about their medical welfare. _Like a scientist with his lab rats_ , she thought bitterly.

Why them? It didn't make any sense to her. She didn't remember anything like this from the show, no time when the Doctor experimented on people in such a way, and so cruelly. Cathryn had explained, using knowledge she had gained about what the Time Lords had done, but not the Doctor, unless his experiments was something edited out of the family rated show. Were they chosen to be his _family_ because they were humans from another universe with no one in this Earth to miss them? No consequences to him to steal them away? But might he have done this to Mickey? Or Rose? Or was it his intention to test the process on other subjects _before_ attempting the same on Rose - he'd wanted her to stay with him forever after all… But, if she and Cathryn hadn't been available to snatch, would he have taken other random human as his guinea pigs? If so, his results must have been unsuccessful, as no additional Time Lords, no _family_ were introduced to the show… Except for Jenny…

Was her story really true? Did it happen the way the show portrayed? Or was she the result of _his_ experimentation and not an external device? What if the episode and the adventure on Messaline had been a creation of the writers to try to explain Jenny, when in actuality events hadn't gone that way at all? And she had only been seen in that one episode. What if, rather than flying off to explore the universe as the episode suggested, she was imprisoned on the TARDIS for the rest of forever to give him some Time Lord company? Was that what he intended for them too?

"Bec?" the Doctor asked worriedly, feeling her panic rising.

"No, I can't. I can't. I can't do this!" she declared, the legs of her chair shrieking loudly upon the floor as she pushed herself away from the table. As her anger had dissipated, her fear had returned, and he was just sitting there across the table from her, her jailor. " _Please_ ," she begged, not looking at him. "I just want to go home!" She hugged herself tightly, wishing it was her husband's arms around her instead, comforting her, keeping her safe from _him_ , but instead it was Cathryn who came to her rescue, pulling away from the table herself to hug her frightened friend.

At her sudden descent into panic, the Doctor pulled out his sonic, quickly checking her hormone levels and the implant's functionality, but all were within appropriate parameters. No, her upset was a genuinely emotional response. ' _Did you explain it to them like you did to me?_ ' Rose had asked. She was right. He needed to make explaining everything to them properly a priority, but now was not the moment.

He breathed out slowly through his nose and leaned back in his chair, away from the table. It broke his hearts to see his children so upset, but he knew he couldn't do anything to comfort them at this point. They were too afraid of him, too untrusting. Any action he took would be counterintuitive. No, maybe it was time he took his leave.

He looked at their plates of uneaten food and the barely touched cups of tea. Hopefully they would feel more comfortable eating in his absence, but he needed to begin on additional nutrient implants for them as soon as possible. So far, their bodies had allocated available resources to the development of their brains, but their bodies needed nutrients to develop properly too. Their bodies were becoming a battlefield and would soon begin competing for resources. It would seriously impact their health and development if he didn't intervene.

He stood up slowly and began backing away towards the door before hesitating in that moment. "I should…" he began, but paused deep in thought and then resisted the urge to make his way to Rose in this moment of emotional peril.

Their fear and anger burned him, so much more potent than the emotions he remembered receiving from his family on Gallifrey, but the two children now under his care hadn't learned the necessary control he was long used to. He remembered having blanched at it before when he felt the overwhelming nature of Bec's fear in the medbay after they had returned from 18th century France. His hand was forced to put his girls under sedation without them being aware that it was his intent. Yes, it was simpler to excuse their erratic behavior to the imbalance of their Time Lord hormones and metabolisms. But upon recovery, the effect still remained prevalent.

Her terror was so palpable in that moment, he could almost taste it, uncontrolled, uninhibited, and the truth of her raw emotions, of how each of them felt towards him, cut him to his hearts. However, despite the pain their response caused him, this time he stopped where he'd previously retreated. He couldn't back away, waiting for a more appropriate time, waiting for them to be more emotionally stable, because, rather than improving, their reactions were steadily becoming more erratic, more unpredictable, and far more potent. No. This was no longer something he could put off, waiting for the right moment. There _would_ be no right moment, not unless he made it himself.

So he stopped in his position and turned on his heel. Bec's recent outburst and Cathryn's behavior… he inhaled through his nose visually seeing the steam seep slowly away on their plates as their food continued to cool.

He took a step in their direction but Bec wouldn't meet his eye. Cathryn looked up at him and briefly she saw the sorrow in his wistful gaze which he did nothing to hide, as he wished they could truly be a family in practice and not just parentage. But he cleared his throat.

"I need you both to follow me." He conveyed the sensation of calm and soothing sensations directly into their minds as he gentled his tone but still made it firm.

"Can't you see that…." Cathryn shook her head, making a pointed glance to Bec to whom she was trying to comfort and clenched her jaw when he appeared undiminished. "I thought you were going to see Rose." Or so she assumed.

"Rose can wait and hour or two." He made a gesture and the kitchen door opened in simple response to his mental command. "Now you two, I don't think you can." He saw their baffled expressions and felt their confusion mixed with their renewed sense of fear. Yes, he needed to address this. Sooner rather than later. He already procrastinated far too long as it was and now….

"You said tomorrow," Bec barely managed a whisper, her throat raw still refusing to look at the Doctor. Why had he changed his mind? Did he enjoy tormenting them so much that he would even leave well enough alone?

"Yes, I did and weeell, but I came to realise…. oh what is that phrase humans so love to use, 'why put off till tomorrow, what you can do today?'" he asked with rhetorical purpose and at that moment, Cathryn understood. Bec glanced at her friend, her eyes wide feeling the altered purpose of the Doctor. It was the therapy he mandated. The therapy that was instituted for Cathryn or…. so he claimed. A chill went down Bec's spine.

 _He doesn't want to wait anymore._ Neither girl knew which one said it, both reflecting on the same thought at the same time and the emotion, the fear that prompted it sent it straight to the other's mind as they held each other in support.

The Doctor wasn't waiting three days to begin this 'telepathic therapy'. He wasn't even waiting a night. Oh no. He intended fully to start it right away. The very quid pro quo of having a sanctuary to themselves and he was asking them to concede already by crossing the figurative foyer.

Cathryn felt her heart started to pound frantically in a perpetual rhythm as she felt the horror of the situation start to sink in. _I can't…._ She thought in terror to Bec who was pressing her lips together, hands clenched around her elbows. What were they going to do?

xxxxxxxxxx

 **Authors' Note:**

 **Sorry for the delay in bringing you all the next chapter. I (az) have been utterly snowed under with sick children (one of whom will be having surgery next week), the stresses of college, moving house (twice) and rebuilding life and a home for my family and I. Still at the same college (the three hour commute is a** _ **killer…**_ **)**

 **Let me tell you, emptyvoices' patience and reassurance over the last few weeks/months has been such a blessing encouragement. Thank you, emptyvoices! :-D**

 **But we're still here and slowly chipping away at chapters and story arcs. :-)**

 **As always we would like to thank LovelyAmberLight, Almaydnis Rayne and FanFictional Authoress for their inspiration and contributions, and thank you all for the encouragement you give us to keep this up.**

 **Until next time! :-D**

 **azaadin & emptyvoices**


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